


Burn These Walls

by PerfectlyAwful15



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alpha Lee Taeyong, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alternate Universe - Small Town, Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, Emotionally Repressed Markhyuck, Enforcer Donghyuck, Enforcer Johnny, Hunter Jaehyun, Inspired by Teen Wolf (TV), M/M, Non-Traditional Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Pack Dynamics, Slow Burn, Suh Youngho | Johnny is Whipped, Undercover Missions
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-19
Updated: 2020-05-31
Packaged: 2021-02-23 00:27:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 29,297
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23736154
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PerfectlyAwful15/pseuds/PerfectlyAwful15
Summary: A dead deputy, a house fire, and accusations of a forced werewolf transformation bring Enforcers Donghyuck and Johnny to the small town of Greenville. What is supposed to be a simple case of fettering out if any of the local Hunters or werewolves have broken the Confidentiality Act quickly spirals out of control as Donghyuck and Johnny find themselves forming attachments they really shouldn’t be making.
Relationships: Chittaphon Leechaiyapornkul | Ten/Suh Youngho | Johnny, Jung Yoonoh | Jaehyun/Lee Taeyong, Lee Donghyuck | Haechan & Suh Youngho | Johnny, Lee Donghyuck | Haechan/Mark Lee
Comments: 46
Kudos: 219





	1. Spark: A Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> This fic has non-traditional A/B/O dynamics which are heavily inspired from the CW show Teen Wolf.  
> -Alphas are the leaders of the Pack and have the ability to transform into a full on monstrous werewolf.  
> -All other werewolves are betas. Werewolves become omegas when they are not part of a Pack. When betas and omegas transform it’s just claws, more fur, glowing eyes and sharp teeth.  
> -Every Pack has one Emissary who is a being with a ‘spark’ in them that gives them supernatural abilities. They mostly use talismans and are supposedly descendants of witches. An Emissary acts as a protector and peacekeeper between the Pack and the rest of the world.  
> -Hunters are highly trained humans who hunt werewolves and other supernatural beings who break the law. They are the self proclaimed Protectors of Humans. While they are human, they are considered to be part of the supernatural world.  
> -Enforcers are highly specialized supernatural law enforcement. There is a lot of mystery surrounding them as they only appear when there is risk of possible exposure of the supernatural world.

Mark stands frozen just outside the door to Taeyong’s office. He shouldn’t be listening to this. He should walk away.

“All I’m saying is that your judgment might be a little clouded in this!” Ten says sternly, as close to yelling as Mark has ever heard him.

“And when I want your advice I will ask for it,” Taeyong snaps and Mark flinches at his tone. Taeyong never lost his temper, never had a reason to when a simple suggestion was more than enough for anyone in the Pack to listen. Even on the rare occasions when he became annoyed with one of them, Taeyong usually just left the room to cool down before talking things out.

The silence is telling that Ten is just as taken aback by Taeyong’s tone as Mark is. “Taeyong, as your Emissary it is my duty—”

“Your duty is to protect the Pack and be an advisor in mortal affairs. Not meddle in my personal life. You have—”

“Well then as your friend, I’m saying t—”

“Just drop it, Ten! It’s not even that big of a deal! You’re—”

“It affects the whole Pack! You’re putting us all in danger wi—”

“ **Enough**.” Taeyong says with blatant Alpha Persuasion, and Mark has to choke down a whine. He’s heard Lucas and Yuta complain about Taeyong’s Persuasion before but he’s never personally heard it. He clenches his hands into a fist to stop them from shaking. 

He shouldn’t be listening to this.

Silence saturates the air and Mark tries to calm his racing heart, certain that Taeyong will hear it.

“As you command. Alpha.” Ten bites out, voice displeased, and then footsteps are heading towards the door. But before Mark can even think of making a run for it Taeyong is speaking again, his voice heavy.

“Wait, Ten. I— I didn’t mean it like that. I’m sorry. I just— I’m not— You know I will always put the Pack first. I would never...” Taeyong trails off and hearing his Alpha sound so distressed is infinitely worse than hearing him angry.

A weary sigh comes from Ten. “Taeyong, I’m not doubting your ability to protect the Pack. I’m on your side here; I’ll _always_ be on your side. I just want to make sure you’ve thought this through. There’s so many ways this could go wrong and I’m afraid you’ll get hurt no matter what.”

“He would never hurt me,” Taeyong says quietly and it’s his vulnerable tone that finally pushes Mark to turn away from the door and get away from the conversation he should never have heard in the first place. But he’s not quick enough and he catches Ten’s final incriminating words.

“Forgive me if I don’t trust a Jung.”

Mark rushes as quietly as he can down the stairs and to the front door, not stopping till he’s outside on the front porch, the warm summer night grounding him as he tries to process what he’s just heard.

In the seven years he’s been a part of the Lee Pack, he has never known Ten and Taeyong to be anything other than in complete agreement with one another. So naturally, he wasn’t sure what to make of the fact that they were arguing over Hunters. And not just any Hunters: a Jung. The Hunter family their Pack had a decades-long feud with.

Taeyong led them with few rules, but he had strict rules that they were to stay out of the Jung’s way. Impressed upon them that if they ever crossed paths with one of them they were to turn around and come straight to either him or one of the hyungs.

And those rules had never really been applicable to the Pack until the Jung patriarch and his family moved to Greenville a few months ago. Mark had the misfortune of running into one of them with Doyoung the first week they had moved here. He had never given the feud much thought, but the hateful glare the Hunter had given him had sent every instinct he had into overdrive. Doyoung had all but dragged him home and made him swear to never go near them.

But for all his warnings and concern, Taeyong had never seemed worried about the Jungs in regards to himself. And why should he? Taeyong was their Alpha. He was strong. So it just didn’t make sense that Taeyong had sounded so distressed. Had sounded almost defensive. His last words echo in Mark’s head: ‘He would never hurt me.’

“What are you doing out here?”

Mark jerks around and comes face to face with his Alpha. “Hyung! I was just… getting some fresh air?”

Taeyong raises a disbelieving eyebrow but doesn’t call him out on his obvious lie. “You should be in bed, you don’t sleep enough as it is.”

Mark doesn't know what he was expecting, but Taeyong looks the same as he always does. There’s no sign of tension anywhere in his body, just genuine concern in his eyes.

He rubs the back of his neck. “Yeah,” he says awkwardly and cringes as a heavy silence falls between them.

“I’m taking the pups on a run tomorrow,” Taeyong says, apropos to nothing. “I’m headed over there now to spend the night. Would you like to join me?”

Mark smiles. “I would like that.” He hadn’t been able to spend as much time as he would have liked with the younger members of the Pack recently. Chenle, their youngest, was going through his rebellious phase where he thought it wasn’t cool to hang around ‘a bunch of old farts’ and Renjun, Jeno and Jaemin were only encouraging him, claiming Chenle needed his independence.

But they weren’t as sneaky as they thought they were by half.

If Mark could see it was all a ploy to stay in the guest house by themselves then Taeyong definitely knew what they were up to. Still, Taeyong had been letting the kids stay in the guest house on the weekdays for the past few months pretty much by themselves, with only one or two of the hyungs spending the night there to make sure they didn’t stay up all night playing around.

“Sicheng and Yuta are there now,” Taeyong says as they start heading the 100 acres or so across their property towards the guest house.

Mark doesn’t even try to hide his smile. “I’m sure Yuta-hyung is enjoying that.”

Taeyong shoots him a conspiratorial wink. “Yuta just loves having Sicheng’s attention stolen by our Renjun. I’m sure he made the pups go to bed early so—” Taeyong stops and sniffs the air. “Do you smell that?” he asks.

Mark sniffs the air. “Is that smoke?” he asks, catching only the barest traces of something burning.

Taeyong’s eyes widen, his face whitening, and then his body is twisting and jerking as he shifts into his Alpha form.

“Hyung!” Mark yells out in confusion, taking a step back from Taeyong’s large werewolf form. But Taeyong ignores him and darts off into the forest with a snarl. “Taeyong-hyung!” Mark cries out, shifting into his own werewolf form and running after his Alpha. He’s nowhere near as fast as Taeyong but it’s easy to follow his scent and it only takes him a few seconds to realize Taeyong is headed straight for the guest house.

Mark races through the trees and terror shoots through him when he gets close enough to see the light from a giant fire. The furious roar of his Alpha fills the night sky and he pushes himself to run faster. When he finally breaks through the tree line and stumbles into the front lawn, he feels like he can’t breathe when he sees the guest house completely engulfed in flames. His heart nearly stops when he sees a sobbing Chenle kneeling in the grass over a familiar form.

“Chenle!” he yells and rushes over to the distraught teenager.

Mark has just enough time to make out Chenle’s soot covered face, pale skin peeking through tear tracks, before Chenle throws himself into his arms. He’s saying something but between his face squished against Mark’s chest and his hysterical sobbing it’s near impossible to make out what.

Mark looks down at Sicheng’s still form, likewise covered in soot, and strains to hear a heartbeat. It takes a second too long to find and it’s several degrees too weak, but it’s there. He rubs a hand up and down Chenle’s back, desperately trying to calm the shaking pup, and tries to think of what to do. “Shhh, it’s okay. It’s okay. Can you tell me what happened? I need to help Sicheng-hyung but I need to know what happened.”

“He— we didn’t— it just—” Chenle sobs.

Mark makes a low rumbling sound in his throat, trying to mimic the noise Doyoung makes for Jeno when the younger gets overwhelmed, and prays that he’s doing it right. It must be somewhat similar because Chenle’s violent shaking settles some.

“The ceiling— it just— it just collapsed. The fire was everywhere and it just fell and Renjun and I just— just stood there and then Sicheng-hyung was there and he tried to cover us and it all fell on him and— and then he didn’t get up and then Yuta-hyung was there but Renjun’s leg was pinned and he could only carry two at a time so Renjun insisted he take Sicheng-hyung and I— I left them hyung! I let Yuta-hyung carry me out and I left everyone in there! And Alpha ran in there and what if he gets hurt too! They haven’t come out and—”

Mark pulls Chenle back into a hug before the boy can work himself up even more. “It’s okay. It’s okay, I got you. It’s okay,” he murmurs into his ear as he looks over his shoulder to assess the damage on Sicheng.

There’s a nasty gash on his left arm and now that Mark’s focusing he can smell burnt skin and fresh blood. He needs to look at Sicheng’s back.

“The fire’s everywhere!” Chenle sobs. “It’s so hot in there. I couldn’t breathe. Hyung, I couldn’t breathe.”

“Chenle. I need you to listen to me, okay? Listen to me.” He holds Chenle by his shoulders and looks him in the eyes. They’re bloodshot and borderline hysterical. “I need to look over Sicheng-hyung, okay? Can you sit down on his other side for me? Facing away? Sicheng-hyung needs you to be strong for just a moment, okay? All you have to do is sit with your back to him. Can you do that for us?”

Chenle sniffs but nods in understanding and starts to limp his way back to Sicheng. One of his pajama pant legs is torn and covered in blood and Mark curses at not realizing it sooner. No wonder Yuta had to carry him out. But Sicheng’s pulse is growing weaker by the second so he forces himself to ignore Chenle’s leg and focus on the elder.

Mark kneels next to the unconscious Sicheng and carefully turns his limp body over. He nearly gags when he gets a full view of his ruined back, the smell of burnt flesh near suffocating. Splinters of wood and shards of glass protrude from red and black blistered skin and what isn’t burnt looks to be scraped raw, slowly oozing out bright red blood.

Mark watches closely, but Sicheng doesn’t appear to be healing.

He bites the inside of his cheek and, trying not to think about it, places both hands on the burnt skin. Agony soaks into his hands and creeps up his arms as he takes some of Sicheng’s pain into his body and forces some of his own energy into Sicheng, trying to speed up the other’s natural healing ability.

“You’re doing so good Chenle,” he says through gritted teeth. “Just keeping facing that way okay? Everything’s going to be okay.”

Mark wants to scream as Sicheng’s pain infects him, black streaks running up his forearms. He’s done this for some of the Pack members before, but helping with a scraped knee is nothing compared to this.

A loud bang startles him as a figure bursts through the front door of the house. Yuta jogs towards them carrying someone in his arms, their arms wrapped around his neck and their face tucked against his shoulder, a blanket covering their face. Yuta stumbles up next to them and with a horrible cough he collapses onto his knees. He gently extracts his charge from his arms and pulls the blanket away from their face.

“Jaemin!” Chenle yells as he jumps up and limps over to a stunned-looking Jaemin, pulling him into a fierce hug. Chenle starts sobbing again but Jaemin just stares off over the younger’s shoulder.

Mark desperately wants to ask what happened, ask where everyone else was, if everyone was okay, but Sicheng’s body is sapping all his energy. The elder wasn’t healing half as well as he should be and Mark is terrified to pull his attention away for even a second.

Yuta’s hands are suddenly pressing against Sicheng’s ruined back, right next to Mark’s. “Hyung,” Mark whispers. “Your hands.” Yuta’s palms are red and raw.

“Door handles. I’m fine,” he says in a raspy voice that brokers no argument. But then he explodes into a coughing fit that lasts for much too long and has him doubling over. He puts his hands back on Sicheng, black lines tracing up his hands, but only lasts a few seconds before he pulls away with a grimace and another nasty cough. “I can’t,” he chokes out, sounding furious with himself. “I used too much energy on Jeno. I’m gonna pass out.”

Before Mark can ask what the hell that means, a crash comes from the house and he whips around in horror as part of the house collapses into itself.

“NO!” Jaemin screams, finally snapping out of his daze. Mark doesn’t stop to think, instincts guiding him, as he jumps up and grabs the teenager around the waist to prevent him from running back into the burning house. To prevent him from foolishly running to his death. “Let me go!” Jaemin screams hysterically. “Jeno and Renjun are still in there! Let me go!”

“Taeyong-hyung is in there,” Mark says as calmly as he can. Yuta is lying on the ground next to Sicheng, half unconscious and coughing up black gunk as his lungs try to repair themselves. He’s weakly holding Sicheng’s hand whose pulse is still much too weak. Somewhere behind him Chenle is still crying. He can’t have Jaemin losing it right now. “Alpha will get them out. He’s saved Jeno before, remember? He’ll do it again, trust him,” Mark says and hopes he isn’t making things worse.

“Alpha is in there?” Jaemin asks in a small voice. He sounds so terribly young and Mark belatedly realizes the teenager is probably in shock.

“Yes, Alpha is in there. Alpha protects us right? So you don’t need to worry about Jeno and Renjun right now. Chenle needs you. Can you help Chenle?”

Jaemin nods and, with eyes that look too unfocused, goes back over to Chenle and they all but collapse in each other's arms. Mark kneels back down at Sicheng’s side and starts pouring his energy into him again. The older is no longer actively bleeding and most of the debris has worked itself out, but the blisters look as painful as ever and his skin is still singed black.

Yuta coughs again from where he’s lying on his back and Mark flinches in surprise. He had honestly thought the older had passed out already, his body’s healing ability draining what little energy he might have had left.

“Jung,” Yuta says and spits out a blood clot. “A Jung started the fire. Shot Jeno.”

Before Mark can even begin to comprehend the horror of that statement a furious roar pierces his eardrums and he has to cover them least they rupture.

And then Taeyong’s terrifying Alpha form is crashing through a window on the second floor, the limp forms of Jeno and Renjun tucked under each arm and a dead body clenched between his jaws.


	2. Enter Enforcers: Two Months Later

“Only an idiot would actually believe I’m a high school student,” Donghyuck scoffs in disbelief. “And what kind of name is Haechan anyway? You could have at least let me pick my own name out.”

Johnny somehow manages to glare at him without looking away from the road. “Are you going to complain the whole way or do I need to tranquilize you?” he threatens.

“Okay okay, chill out, jeez. I just don’t see why I have to go back to the hellscape that is high school.”

Johnny ignores him and continues with his debrief as if he’d never been interrupted. “I’ll be taking over the deputy’s position in the local police department _and before you start complaining_ , I didn’t pick our identities so don’t start bitching.”

Donghyuck crosses his arms but doesn’t say anything.

“We should be there in about two hours, so make sure you have that memorized before we get there,” he gestures to the file laying open on Donghyuck’s lap. “You start school tomorrow.”

Donghyuck lazily flips a page and stares down at the solemn face of Lee Taeyong. Alpha, 26 years old, only child, parents overseas, unmated— “Is this really necessary?” he asks in what is definitely not a whine. “I know how to do my job. I know the Lee Pack and the Jung family like the back of my hand. Go ahead and quiz me on them. I’m practically an expert.”

Johnny finally looks over at him and gives him an unimpressed look. “Who's the youngest member of the Lee Pack?”

“Park Jisung,” Donghyuck immediately responds, making finger guns. “Beta, 16 years old, turned three weeks ago by Alpha Lee Taeyong, junior at Richards High and most importantly, the one I’m supposed to cuddle up to.” He gives an exaggerated wink.

Johnny gives him an exasperated look. “Hyuck, please take this more seriously. This isn’t like our previous jobs. The Jung Family and the Lee Pack have a blood feud that goes back generations and we’re stepping into what could become an active warzone with one wrong move.” 

“I _am_ taking this seriously, hyung,” Donghyuck says, propping a foot up on the dashboard. “See.” He pulls his pant leg up and pulls his gun from its holster.

“Jesus Christ put that away! You’re a high schooler! You can’t be carrying that around!”

“So make me an officer at the police station with you!”

Johnny runs a hand through his hair. “Hyuck. We’re supposed to be _discreetly_ investigating. There’s no way we can do that if _two_ new officers show up at the same time and start poking around.”

“It’s not like they’re expecting _two_ Enforcers,” Donghyuck mumbles grumpily. “And it’s not like the Jungs won’t be suspicious of a new deputy anyway. They practically coined the term paranoia.”

“We’re counting on them being suspicious of me, Hyuck,” Johnny sighs. “Them as well as the Lee Emissary. If you had been listening to me earlier, you would know that the whole point is for me to draw their attention so you can do your thing without them bothering you.”

Donghyuck chews the inside of his cheek. He _had_ been listening, it’s just that he hated that Johnny was playing bait. Johnny was good at his job: could elicit an invitation into any Hunter estate within a few days and be in and out within hours. But the Council was asking him to intentionally draw the Hunter’s attention to himself for who knows how long so they would be too preoccupied to look into Donghyuck. It put Johnny in unnecessary danger. “We should just do this job as we normally do,” Donghyuck argues. “Get in, pull the answers from their memories, and get out. All this cloak and dagger and misdirection seems a bit excessive.”

“Agreed,” Johnny says. “But the Council is convinced Memory Diving won’t work on half the Lee Pack. And like I said, this isn’t just some petty spat. Reports have Lee Taeyong pointing fingers at specific Hunters and Jung Jihyun pointing fingers at specific werewolves. And neither of them are making light accusations.”

Donghyuck hums in agreement. “Some of the Jungs are pretty extreme, but accusing them of trying to kill a bunch of kids is pretty excessive. And accusing Lee Taeyong of killing the deputy and forcefully turning kids is pretty far fetched.”

“Which is why we need to go into this unbiased and without drawing undue attention to ourselves,” Johnny says. “Whatever is going on is drawing a lot of attention from the human community and we’re here to determine if anyone is a threat to the Confidentiality Act. No more and no less.”

Donghyuck sighs. “This job is gonna suck.”

* * *

The move into their new apartment is as boring as it always is. They didn’t bring much to begin with and the small apartment doesn’t beg to be decorated. So two hours after arriving in Greenville finds Johnny and Donghyuck sitting on the floor of their living room eating chinese take out.

“I approve,” Johnny says to himself and Donghyuck resigns himself to the fact that he’s going to be eating a lot of chinese for the duration of their stay here. But at least it won’t be as bad as the time in Michigan when Johnny fell in love with a burger place. Even now, two years later, Donghyuck feels slightly nauseous at the smell of hamburgers.

Two sharp knocks sound on their front door and they immediately stand up. Johnny pulls on his discarded jacket to hide his gun strap and Donghyuck rests a hand on the blade strapped to his forearm, hidden by his sleeves.

Two knocks again and Johnny is making some of his stupid hand signs that he thinks make him look cool. Donghyuck rolls his eyes but nods and goes to stand next to the door, against the wall so whoever’s at the door won’t see him. Johnny puts on a wide smile and opens the front door.

“Hey there, sorry to barge in all of a sudden but my wife was taking a walk by here earlier and she noticed you moving in. She had to go back to work but she baked these cookies and told me to welcome you to the town! So, uh, welcome to Greenville!”

“Oh wow, thank you!” Johnny says, and Donghyuck cringes as Johnny adopts his awkward but nice guy persona: one of his favorites that had Emissaries trusting him within minutes and Hunters labeling him as harmless.

“Where are you coming from?” Their visitor asks. 

“Up north. Washington, actually.”

“That’s quite a change of scenery.”

“Isn’t that the truth! There’s so much green around here!” Johnny says, laying it on thick. “But I’m a big fan of the warm weather so far.”

“Oh just you wait, when summer hits you’ll be dreading the heat,” the man jokes. “What brings you so far away? Work?”

“Yeah, actually!” Johnny says excitedly and, as much as Donghyuck likes to give him shit about his stupid covers, they’re incredibly convincing. “I’m the new deputy. One of my buddies in Washington knows the Sheriff a few towns over and he told me about the open position. Sent in my application and next thing I know I’m being told I got the job. I start this Monday actually- didn’t even have to do an interview or anything.”

“Oh, so you’re the new deputy,” the man says and his voice takes on a more interested tone that sounds less like he’s reading from a script. “My father is actually the Sheriff around here. I’m Jung Jihyun.”

Haechan stiffens. What were the chances of that?

“Johnny,” Johnny says, and from the way he leans forward slightly, they must be shaking hands. “My brother Haechan is around here somewhere, he went off to explore the town a while ago.”

“Say, how about you and your brother come over and have dinner with me and the family this weekend. We can show you around the town, show you all the hotspots.”

“That would be wonderful Mr. Jung,” Johnny says and Donghyuck rolls his eyes.

It seemed like Johnny wouldn’t have to try that hard to distract the Jungs afterall. They hadn’t been here a day and he had already managed to worm his way into their house. Now all Johnny needed to do was track down the Lee’s Emissary and distract them so Donghyuck could investigate the Lee Pack.

“Please, just Jihyun is fine.”

“Jihyun. I can’t make any promises about my brother, but I’ll definitely take you up on that dinner.”

* * *

Donghyuck stares at the front doors of Richards High and wants to cry. When he finished high school four years ago he’d thought he was done with the accursed place forever. And yet here he was, returning to a place he had sworn on multiple occasions that you couldn’t pay him to return to.

Donghyuck silently curses his youthful features. There was no way the Council would have made his cover a high schooler if he actually looked his twenty two years. And to make matters worse, he was coming in on the second week of the school year on a Thursday. It was like his cover had been designed to torment him.

At this point, Donghyuck was just hoping no humans would take an interest in him. It was cruel enough that he had to play human- he wasn't sure he could handle talking with them too. Hopefully he would be able to make contact with Jisung without ha—

“Hey man, are you lost?” A voice from behind him asks.

Donghyuck turns around and raises an eyebrow at the sight of Lee Jeno, 17, Beta. What a coincidence.

“Uh, kinda, this is actually my first day here.” Donghyuck ducks his head slightly and pretends to be embarrassed. “It sounds kind of dumb but I was just a bit overwhelmed.”

“Oh yeah no way, that’s totally understandable. My friend Jisung was a new kid here last year and he was nervous too so I totally get where you’re coming from. I can show you around if you want? Class doesn't start for like another half hour.”

“If you’re not too busy that would be great,” Donghyuck says with a smile. This was way too easy. Like the Jungs, the Lee Pack had unintentionally approached him first. “I’m Haechan by the way.”

“I’m Jeno, I’m a senior. What year are you?”

“I’m a senior too!” Donghyuck says excitedly.

“We might have some classes together then,” Jeno says with an adorable eye-smile, throwing an arm around Donghyuck’s shoulder.

Donghyuck gives his best smile back. This was a little _too_ easy.

* * *

“I think they messed up your classes dude,” Jeno says as he looks over Donghyuck’s schedule.

“Yeah, juniors take Western Civilization, not seniors,” Jaemin says from where he’s draped over Jeno’s shoulder.

“Yeah, Jisung and Chenle are taking that this year,” Renjun says, draped over Jeno’s other shoulder.

Donghyuck wonders if he should comment on how weird it is for them to be so touchy feely in front of a guy they met like five minutes ago but holds his tongue. His goal is to befriend them, not point out how much they weren’t acting like regular teenage human boys. Though Donghyuck does find it odd that no one in the cafeteria is giving the three of them weird looks. Maybe human norms had changed- it had been four years since he’d been around them.

“I move around a lot and sometimes my credits don’t transfer. And I’m kind of dumb as fuck so it’s probably right,” Donghyuck settles on saying. Which is better than saying he’s taking them to get close to their youngest and newest Pack member. But from the affronted look the three simultaneously give him, Donghyuck reconsiders his statement.

“You’re not allowed to say that,” Renjun says seriously.

“Say what?” Someone asks from behind them.

Donghyuck turns around to see the two remaining minors of the Lee Pack. And really, this was getting to be ridiculously easy. They were practically handing Park Jisung to him on a silver platter.

“Jisungie!” Jaemin exclaims as he gets up and throws himself against the boy.

“Ugh, hyung!” Jisung complains, twisting his head away as he tries to avoid Jaemin’s kisses.

“Let me love you~” Jaemin coos but releases the boy. Only to drag him and Chenle to sit down with them.

“This is Haechan,” Jeno says. “He’s new here and he cusses.”

Jisung pulls a horrified face and looks around like he expects someone to be listening in on them. “You really shouldn’t do tha—”

“Yes!” Chenle yells over top of the boy. He leans over Jisung and clings to Donghyuck’s arm. “Can I hang out with you? These losers are too scared of Taeyong-hyung to cuss. Fuck that!” he says cheerfully.

“Chenle!” Renjun scolds, and while Chenle shrinks back he doesn’t apologize.

“Is this your schedule?” Jisung asks, holding Donghyuck’s schedule up.

“Yeah, apparently I’m taking a bunch of junior level classes,” he says, watching as Renjun ruffles the youngest’s hair, making it stick up in every direction.

Donghyuck catalogues each little movement they make. Jisung seems comfortable around all of them, showing no signs of distress. Not even remotely looking like someone who was turned against their will.

“Let me see,” Chenle says, grabbing at the schedule. “Oh! You’re in the same classes as me and Jisung! Ugh, it’s the worst having chemistry first period.” He grabs Donghyuck’s arm again. “Don’t worry Haechan! We’ll protect you!”

“Thanks, uh…”

“Oh, I’m Chenle! And that’s Jisung,” he says, pointing to the youngest.

But Jisung’s attention is elsewhere, swatting Renjun’s hand away and then attempting to fix his hair with only partial success. But it’s immediately deemed redundant when Jaemin leans over and messes it up again, happily ignoring Jisung’s loud protests.

* * *

“Jeno-hyung says you’re a senior,” Jisung whispers to him from where they’re sitting in the back of the classroom.

“Yeah, I move around a lot so I’ve had to retake a few classes since I never finished them,” he whispers back.

“So are you like Renjun-hyung’s age?” he asks.

A bit older, he thinks but says, “I don’t know how old he is but I turn 18 in a few months.”

“Oh,” Jisung pauses and his face scrunches up. “You smell good,” he says. “That must be why hyung likes you so much.”

Donghyuck blinks and tries to think of what a normal response to that would be. He knows he smells good to werewolves, it’s one of the main reasons he was selected to specialize in handling them, but he’s never had a werewolf so blatantly point it out to him. Especially within a few hours of meeting them.

Surely Jisung’s Alpha had taught him the importance of keeping his identity a secret? He might’ve only been a werewolf for around a month now but there was no way Lee Taeyong and the older Pack members hadn’t stressed the dangers of outing themselves to humans.

“Well of course he does,” Chenle butts in. “Why else would the hyungs have talked to him? You know Jeno-hyung is bad at resisting a good scent.”

Jisung nods seriously. “You’re right. It’s kind of,” he sniffs the air, “like sugar?”

Chenle smiles. “Good job,” he says and affectionately pats Jisung’s head.

Donghyuck watches them with wide eyes, taken aback by how they’re just blatantly talking about their werewolf enhancements. How the hell was Lee Taeyong running his Pack?

“You can smell me?” he asks, unsure of what to say but knowing that he should say something. Maybe Jisung _had_ been turned against his will and only had the younger ones to teach him how to be a werewolf. He needed to see him interact with the older Pack members.

Jisung and Chenle turn to look at him at the same time, eyes wide as if they’ve just realized what they were talking about.

“Jisung has a genetic disorder,” Chenle blurts out, as if that would explain everything. 

“Oh… okay,” Donghyuck says, taking the excuse. 

Chenle nods, looking pleased with himself and Donghyuck can’t help but wonder how they haven’t been discovered yet.

* * *

The rest of his first day of school passes in a blur of Chenle and Jisung making increasingly obvious references to their werewolf abilities and Donghyuck almost pulls his hair out at how frustrating it is, the Enforcer part of him screaming at how close they are to breaking the Confidentiality Act. Still, the two kids quickly endure themselves to him.

At lunch, Jisung gives him a piece of his homemade brownie that “my Alph— uhh, big brother made” which was equal parts adorable and exasperating but at least told him that Lee Taeyong hadn’t completely abandoned the kid after turning him.

And when their english teacher tells Donghyuck to stand at the front of the room and introduce himself, Chenle starts asking as many questions as he can about last night’s reading which takes up so much time that the teacher just jumps right into the day’s lecture to get him to stop, forgetting about Donghyuck. 

So it’s by the last period of the day that Donghyuck finds himself stuck in the awkward position of needing to be close to the two werewolves but uncomfortable with just how easily he’s getting along with them. He hasn’t faked a single smile or laugh all day. 

“Haechan, Haechan,” Jisung says excitedly when the last bell of the day rings. “Did you drive here? Do you have a car? Can we see it?”

“Yeah, I’m parked in the back parking lot,” he says. The Council had arranged it so two used cars with Washington plates were waiting for them when they arrived at their new apartment. The pick up truck they had driven here had been gone before Donghyuck had woken up that morning, picked up sometime in the night by another Enforcer.

Donghyuck leads them to his car and wonders if he can convince them to come home with him. It would be crude, but he could end this mission much earlier if he slipped the two teenagers wolfsbane and then dived into their memories while they were knocked out. After all, he was skeptical that Memory Diving would be ineffective, and even if there were a few Pack members who could resist it, he was almost certain it would work on the two youngest. But he immediately shoots the idea down. On the slim chance he was wrong he could ruin the job before it even properly started.

“Renjun used to drive us all to school in his car,” Chenle says. “But then he, Jeno and Jaemin got caught stealing Taeil’s and Yuta’s cars because they wanted to race. So they took Renjun’s car away which is totally unfair since Jisung and I weren’t even involved but we’re getting punished with them.”

“So now one of the hyungs has to drop us off and pick us up everyday,” Jisung pipes in.

“I hope it’s Kun-hyung today,” Chenle says. “He always lets me choose the music. Oh WOW, your car is a piece of junk,” he says, eyes judging Donghyuck’s car.

“Thanks,” Donghyuck says dryly, but takes the opening. “I can pick you guys up tomorrow morning if you want?”

“Yes!” Jisung shouts. “Can Jeno, Jaemin and Renjun-hyung fit too?”

“Who cares!” Chenle says. “We should just leav—” Chenle cuts off and jerks his head around.

Donghyuck follows his gaze to see Jeno, Jaemin and Renjun across the parking lot, talking with a man who he immediately recognizes as another member of the Lee Pack. Mark Lee.

Mark looks… not angry per se, but his lips are pursed in a thin, disapproving line. Jaemin and Jeno seem to be arguing with him, Jaemin’s arms flailing around. Renjun stands to the side looking uncomfortable.

“Uhh, I think we should go,” Chenle says as he grabs Jisung’s wrist. And to Donghyuck’s surprise, he grabs Donghyuck’s jacket sleeve with his other hand.

“Wait!” Donghyuck protests as Chenle drags him along. Everything was moving too fast. Even in their best case scenarios he and Johnny had only planned on him introducing himself to one or two of the teenaged werewolves today. He needed to talk with Johnny before he made any movements on any of the older Pack members.

But it’s too little too late and he’s suddenly coming to a halt beside Renjun. Jaemin turns and smiles brightly at him, throwing a careless arm around his shoulder as if they’ve been friends for years. “This is him!” he exclaims.

“He smells good, right hyung?” Jeno insists.

Donghyuck wants to grab them all by the shoulders and shake them. Did they have no sense of secrecy? Did they not know how to act like normal human beings?

Mark moves to stand in front of him and as if by some unspoken cue Jeno, Renjun, and Jaemin step back. In a stark contrast from this morning, it feels like it’s _him_ that’s being offered up on a silver platter.

“You’re Haechan?” Mark asks, his eyes looking him up and down.

Donghyuck holds his head up and internally curses when he feels his cheeks start to warm up. Mark Lee’s file photo hadn’t done him justice.

Mark’s nostrils flare and God did none of them have any self restraint? His eyes are still looking him over and while Donghyuck normally loves attention, Mark’s stare is making his stomach feel a little queasy and he doesn’t care for that feeling at all.

“Like what you see?” Donghyuck blurts out and immediately wants to crawl into a hole and die at the obvious come on. He could charm his way into any werewolf’s good graces but he’s discovered in the last two minutes that this didn’t necessarily extend to werewolves he found attractive. _Fuck_ , he really needed Johnny.

From behind him he hears Chenle burst into laughter.

Mark blinks in surprise and his face goes through some truly remarkable contortions before it settles on something that looks like displeasure. He turns away and looks at Renjun. “It’s time to go,” he says and opens the passenger door to the car behind him.

And whatever reaction Donghyuck had been expecting it certainly wasn’t that. He couldn’t remember the last time a werewolf had just… dismissed him.

“Haechan has a car!” Jisung blurts out and Mark looks back at the youngest with a frown. “He has a car and he said we could ride with him so… can we… ride… with him… please?” Jisung asks, his voice becoming weaker and more uncertain as he goes on.

“What?!” Jeno yells, turning to Donghyuck with a hurt look. “Why weren’t we invited?”

“Uhh, you’re welcome to joi—” 

“You know the rules,” Mark cuts in, and Donghyuck discovers he vastly prefers being stared at to being ignored and talked over.

Jeno frowns. “It can’t hurt to ask though, right?”

Mark lets out a world weary sigh and rakes a hand through his hair. “Fine,” he says. “But don’t come whining to me when he says no.”

“Yes!” Chenle yells and tugs on Donghyuck’s arm. “We just need to ask our… dad?” He says it like it’s a question, head tilted to the side in confusion.

“You’re all brothers?” Donghyuck asks, unable to resist such an easy opening.

“Yes,” Jisung says at the same time Mark says “No.” Mark gives another strained look.

“Jeno’s my brother,” Renjun says.

“What? No way!” Jeno protests. “If anyone’s my brother it’s Doyoung-hyung.”

“God, I’ll never understand how you put up with him,” Jaemin says with a roll of his eyes.

“Then Kun-hyung is mine,” Chenle cuts in.

“Well I want a brother,” Renjun demands.

“I thought Sicheng-hyung was actually your brother,” Jisung says.

“Okay okay okay,” Mark says loudly. “That’s enough. Everyone in the car. Now.”

There’s a lot of grumbling but they eventually all climb into the car. Donghyuck smiles when Jeno mimes calling him before Mark shuts the door in his face.

Mark finally looks back at him but he’s making that same strained look that Donghyuck is starting to think might just be his default expression.

“Haechan. It was nice meeting you,” he says, sounding completely insincere.

“Riiight,” Donghyuck says. “Has anyone ever told you you’re kind of a dick?” he asks and internally screams for Johnny to come save him from himself. It was like he was sixteen again: so blindly confident that he just said whatever he wanted with no regard for the consequences.

Mark’s face goes through another round of impressive if incomprehensible expressions before it settles on irritation. “Has anyone ever told you if you don’t have anything nice to say don’t say anything at all?” he says it in a surprisingly neutral tone.

Donghyuck raises an eyebrow and feels a jolt of irritation when Mark’s eyes start to drift away from him. Start to dismiss him again. “Sure,” he says cheerfully, unable to stop himself. “But I thought calling you hot would be a little forward and shallow of me. So I decided to compliment your personality instead of your looks. Pretty nice of me if I do say so myself.”

Mark frowns but he’s looking at him again so Donghyuck counts it as a win. “How is being a dick a good thing?” he asks.

“Well it depends on how you use it,” Donghyuck says and seriously wants to staple his mouth shut. But physically, Mark checks all of Donghyuck’s boxes (the fact that he just made the mental checklist a few minutes ago is irrelevant) and he’s always been weak for a pretty face.

To Donghyuck’s surprise, Mark lets out a snort and turns away but not before Donghyuck catches a smile tugging at his lips.

“It was nice meeting you Haechan,” he says in that same insincere tone and goes around the car to get in the driver’s seat. Chenle and Jaemin’s faces are squished against the window and they frantically wave at Donghyuck as the car pulls away.

Donghyuck waves back and starts mentally rehearsing how he’s gonna tell Johnny what just went down without making himself look bad.


	3. Settling In: The First Changes In Parameters

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm thinking this will be around 11 chapters? But I actually don't know what a good chapter length is, so who knows. This fic is really just an excuse to write about how NCT love each other under the guise of Markhyuck and werewolves.

Donghyuck throws his backpack on the floor and flops down on the couch with a weary sigh. Going back to high school hadn’t been as bad as he thought it would be, but in some ways it had been so much worse. All of which he attributes to the two youngest werewolves.

Donghyuck’s literal job was to get along with werewolves, to seamlessly integrate himself into a Pack in a short period of time- and he was damn good at it. But even he was surprised by how well he clicked with Chenle and Jisung. And he would even dare say that it extended to the other teenage werewolves. Honestly, the more he thought about it, the more discerning it actually was.

“I’m home!” Donghyuck yells, debating if he should even bother to do his homework. He would only be here for three months at the most, so it didn’t really matter if he failed his classes. Plus he had no desire to do something as mundane as physical science.

“Hellooo,” he yells again. “Anybody here?”

When there’s no reply he pulls out his phone and calls the number he had memorized three days ago. The only real downside about having to get new phones each mission was having to memorize each other’s numbers. He listens to it ring and frowns when all he gets is Johnny’s voicemail. He calls again but no one answers. He doesn’t bother leaving a message, just clenches his teeth in aggravation.

He and Johnny had one unbreakable rule: always pick up your phone. Always. And if they were in a situation where they couldn’t, they would send a text as soon as they could, even if it was just keyboard smashing.

Donghyuck sits at the kitchen table and picks up one of the knives and the whetstone he’d left there last night. He rhythmically runs the stone over the blade, the hiss of metal a familiar noise that calms his nerves.

He’ll give Johnny half an hour to respond. If he doesn’t hear anything by then, then he’ll hunt him down.

He runs the whetstone over and over, the movements ingrained into him since he was old enough to hold a knife. He was perficent with guns, but he had always excelled with hand held weapons. And knives were his specialty.

His phone buzzes and he all but scrambles to open it.

**(+1877-676-2001 18:14)** _Sorry. Headed back now. Be there in 25_

Donghyuck deletes the message and Johnny walks through the front door exactly twenty three minutes later. 

“Well look what the cat dragged in. You better have a good excuse,” Donghyuck says, not bothering to hide his irritation. But Johnny doesn’t rise to his barb and on second glance he seems a little out of it. 

Donghyuck’s irritation easily gives way to concern. “Did you run into a Jung again?”

“No, nothing like that,” Johnny reassures him, waving a hand through the air. “I just— uh, I ran into the Lee’s Emissary.”

Donghyuck doesn't see why that would have him looking all out of sorts. Johnny literally specialized in handling Emissaries. Donghyuck tenses. “Did he suspect something?” There was no way Johnny had blown their cover. “Why do you look like you’re sick?” He stands up as a horrible thought grips him. “Did he hurt you?”

“No!” Johnny insists. “No, Hyuck, I’m fine. Promise.” He goes over and ruffles Donghyuck’s hair. “I’m just…” his face scrunches up “I was just caught off guard,” he says but the way he says it sounds more like a question.

Donghyuck isn’t sure what to make of that but he doesn’t push; from the way Johnny runs a hand through his hair he seems stressed enough. Instead, he sits down and lets Johnny collect himself. “Have you eaten yet?”

When Johnny shakes his head no, Donghyuck goes to the kitchen to reheat last night's take out. He puts half of it in a bowl and puts it in front of Johnny, taking the rest for himself. He’s halfway through his bowl when Johnny finally speaks up.

“He, uh, he was at the grocery store and he was reaching for something on the top shelf.” Johnny frowns. “I never realized how short he actually is,” he mumbles before shaking his head. “I helped him and then we were talking and the next thing I know we’re having lunch.”

When he doesn’t continue Donghyuck carefully comments, “That’s super convenient… but aren’t you supposed to just be a peripheral distraction? I didn’t think such direct contact like that with the Emissary factored into any of our plans. Especially since you’ve already established close contact with the Jungs.” 

“Yeah but get this, Ten is kind of a big gossip and he let slip that Lee Taeyong’s been hanging out with someone he’s not supposed to.”

Donghyuck watches Johnny carefully. He’s known him since he was a kid; they were trained together and had been partners for the past six years. If anyone could read him it was Donghyuck. And yet, he can’t quite make out what Johnny’s odd tilted tone and careful body movements mean.

He _knew_ this mission was going to suck.

“That’s a… weird… thing for an Emissary to say to someone they just met.” And it really was. The Emissaries Donghyuck had met we’re all cryptic bastards who were physically incapable of giving a straight answer. They certainly wouldn’t be caught doing something as mundane as gossiping.

Johnny frowns. “Yeah, but Ten, this Emissary, he’s not like other Emissaries. He’s… very human. Anyway, he was pretty frustrated about it and there’s only one thing I can think of that would rile him up that badly.” Johnny looks at him expectantly.

“Uh, Emissaries get pretty worked up over Alphas that aren’t their own?”

“True, but no,” Johnny says. He gives another expectant look.

Donghyuck just stares back, clueless.

“It’s a Jung!” Johnny exclaims. “Taeyong is friends with one of the Jungs! And I’d put my money on the youngest: Jung Jaehyun.”

Donghyuck thinks it over for a second. “That’s a pretty big mental leap. I mean, the Lee Pack and the Jungs are kind of the gold standard for blood feuds. And the idea of the current Alpha being chummy with the grandson of the current head of the Jung family?” Donghyuck frowns. “I don’t know. It sounds pretty out there.”

“Trust me, I know.” Johnny says. “But I’m not ignoring a hunch.”

“So are you investigating too now?”

Johnny leans back in his chair and chews the inside of his cheek. “I think I can get somewhere with Ten. He, uh,” his face makes some weird expression that Donghyuck has no idea how to interpret other than looking vaguely embarrassed, “He’s already shown he’s willing to be open with me so I don’t think it would be smart to just drop him. If Lee Taeyong killed that deputy, Ten would know about it, not one of the younger werewolves. An Emissary would never betray their Alpha, but what they don’t say about their Alpha is just as telling as what they do say.”

Donghyuck nods; that made sense. “So what? Do I not need to cosy up to Jisung then? Do _I_ play distraction for the Jungs and investigate them?” he asks. He was horrible at handling Hunters.

Johnny shakes his head. “No, I’ll still keep the Jungs occupied, but I think instead of just sneaking around their place, I’ll get close to Jung Jaehyun. You keep with the younger werewolves. We still need to confirm if Park Jisung was turned against his will or not. He might be too scared to come right out and say it. And reports said the young ones were there for that fire. If anyone is going to honestly tell us what happened that night, it's one of them. If the Jung’s really did start that fire then that’s enough to charge for Reckless Exposure.”

“Right,” Donghyuck says and figures there’s no good way to put it so just dives right in. “Also, unrelated and not that important, but I kind of insulted one of the werewolves. Mark Lee. Maybe, I’m not sure. I couldn’t really tell what he was thinking.”

Johnny turns an exasperated look at him and Donghyuck puts his hands in the air. “It wasn’t my fault! And you didn’t pick up my calls so I think that makes us even.”

Donghyuck is saved from having to defend himself further by his phone ringing. There was only one person other than Johnny who knew his number. “Well would you look at that,” Donghyuck says, standing up and backing up towards his room.

He shakes his phone at Johnny. “That’s Lee Jeno calling me right now. Probably to tell me I can pick them up from their house tomorrow morning. No need to praise me. I know I’m good.” And with that he runs to his bedroom and slams the door shut before Johnny can decide to shoot him.

“Hello?” He answers when he’s certain Johnny won’t chase after him.

“Hey, so this is super embarrassing,” Jeno says with no prelude. “But our uh, dad? Our dad is super protective and he wants to make sure— oh my god this is so embarrassing— but he wants to make sure you’re like, not a bad influence or anything. So would it be okay if you came a little bit earlier tomorrow so he can meet you?”

“Is that Haechan? Tell him we’ll make it as painless as possible!” He hears Jaemin yell in the background.

“Yeah, yeah,” Jeno agrees. “It won’t be bad, I promise.”

“I’ll protect you!” Chenle screams in the background.

The only reason Donghyuck doesn’t burst into laughter is because he feels so bad that they’re so bad at lying. Not only could they not agree on who was related to whom, but they really expected him to believe Lee Taeyong was their father.

“I can be there by 6:30,” Donghyuck promises.

“Oh thank god,” Jeno mumbles and Donghyuck’s pretty sure he wasn’t supposed to hear that.

“If you come a bit earlier you can join us for breakfast,” Renjun yells in the background.

“I’ll text you the address,” Jeno says. “You can’t miss it!”

* * *

“I overheard the hyungs talking about Enforcers,” Jeno says later that night.

Jisung flops down on the bed, apparently deciding he’s sleeping there tonight. “What’s that?”

Jaemin jumps up on the bed next to him. “They’re like omniscient cops. One of them shows up at your door one day asks you questions and then sends a report to the Council who determines if you’ve been found guilty or not.”

“Guilty of what?” Jisung only puts a nominal effort in pushing Jaemin away.

“Breaking the Confidentiality Act,” Renjun answers from where he and Chenle are sitting on the floor next to the bed, hunched over a laptop. “That Act is why everyone was all over you about not telling anyone about werewolves. Apparently some 200 years ago the witches tried to expose themselves and the Enforcers found them guilty and just…”

“Just what?” Jisung asks, eyes already closed.

Renjun shrugs but it’s Jeno who answers. “Wiped them all out. Witches are extinct now.”

“Geez. Do they have an army or something?” Jisung asks, sitting up. Next to him, Jaemin is already asleep, oblivious.

“The opposite actually,” Renjun says. “Enforcers are notorious loners. The witches fought back, probably thinking they could pick them off one by one but the Enforcers joined up and fought back. Supposedly they were as likely to fight among themselves as they were the witches. No one has seen more than one Enforcer in one place since.”

Jisung frowns. “They have that Council, right? Aren’t they Enforcers as well? How do they meet and discuss things then?”

Jeno shrugs. “I don’t know.”

“How do they reproduce?” Chenle chimes in.

“I don’t know?” Renjun says. “I'm just saying things I heard Kun say before. The point is Enforcers are crazy strong and you can’t hide the truth from them.”

“Why do you think the hyungs were talking about them?” Jeno asks.

“Do you think it has to do with the fire?” Jisung asks.

“That wasn’t our fault,” Chenle says sharply.

“We didn’t do anything wrong,” Renjun assures. “Even if an Enforcer did come here, we would be fine.”

* * *

The Lee House was an old colonial house set fairly deep within Neo Forest- a large section of land which had been passed down through the Lee Pack’s Alphas for as long as they had existed. Donghyuck only makes it a mile or two into the forest before he has to pull over, the buzz of supernatural energy lighting up his senses.

Donghyuck gets out of his car and kneels down to touch the dirt road. Dirt which had trace amounts of loosestrife petals mixed in: a strong deterrent for fae. Donghyuck looks at the trees around him and his sharp eyes catch faint carvings in a few trunks: old celtic glyphs that ward off evil intentions.

Donghyuck reaches behind him and presses against the back of his neck, just below his shirt’s collar. Though he can’t see it, he knows ink is bleeding to the surface of his skin to reveal a small tattoo. To anyone else it would look like an abstract design, but to him and his brethren it says SEE in the language of their ancestors. And now Donghyuck can see what he couldn’t before.

Protective charms permeate the air and the ground practically glows with Emissary magic. The entire forest from this point to the Lee House was intertwined with so much defensive energy that anything with any less than the best intentions would be unable to go any further.

Donghyuck lets the ink on his neck fade back into him and brushes his fingers over the intricate criss-crossing pattern inked on the small of his back: REJECT. One of the first marks Enforcers received, it kept any Emissary magic or talismans from affecting them. He had activated it before they had arrived in Greenville, but this Emissary’s work was unusually strong. Strong enough that Donghyck felt the need to check for the buzz of energy coming from the mark to make sure he hadn’t accidentally deactivated it.

Donghyuck gets back in his car and for a brief moment has an intense feeling of foreboding: as if he was about to cross the point of no return. He shakes his head and the feeling disappears.

He pulls up in front of the Lee House at 6:15 and even though he’s seen photographs of the place, he hadn’t realized just how _big_ the Lee House was. Though anything that could comfortably house an entire Pack of werewolves was bound to be spacious.

He’s only just stepped out of his car when the front door of the house slams open and an excited Jaemin is running towards him. “Haechan!” he screams as he throws himself at Donghyuck with more force than is appropriate.

 _Way_ more force than is appropriate Donghyuck realizes as the werewolf’s weight forces him backwards and his back slams against his car.

“Jaemin you’re gonna crush him!” He hears Chenle screeches and Donghyuck has only a second to brace himself before Chenle launches himself on Jaemin’s back.

Donghyuck lets out a strangled grunt at their combined weight and is torn between yelling that they could have crushed him if he were human and trying to think of how he’s going to explain why his ribs aren’t broken.

“Hey!” A voice snaps and Jaemin and Chenle quickly scramble away from him. “You are not wild animals! We do not tackle our guests!” A thin man walks towards them with a stern expression. “Get back inside and finish helping Renjun set the table. Shoo!”

Jaemin and Chenle groan but head back inside and the newcomer approaches Donghyuck with a much softer expression. The werewolf looks exactly like his file photo.

“Are you okay, kid?” Doyoung asks, eyes sweeping over him. “I apologize for their behavior, I don’t know what they were thinking. They’re usually better restrained than this.”

Doyoung reaches over and starts patting him down, not-so-subtly looking for any injury. Donghyuck stands still and lets the werewolf check him over. The older must have a strong maternal instinct. He could definitely use that to his advantage.

Doyoung hums thoughtfully. “I thought they were rough enough to at least bruise you.” Before Donghyuck can say anything, Doyoung turns on his heel and heads back to the house. “Well come on then, don’t just stand there,” he yells over his shoulder.

Or maybe he didn’t have strong maternal instincts and just wanted to make sure his Packmates hadn’t almost accidentally maimed him.

Donghyuck rushes to catch up with Doyoung and when he walks through the front door, he's almost bowled over by a man running across the foyer.

“Whoa! Renjun watch— wait. You’re not Renjun.” The man takes a step back and looks him over. Lucas, Donghyuck easily identifies.

His file had been sparse compared to the rest of the Pack’s. While a good few years older than the teenage werewolves, Lucas had only joined the Lee Pack a few years ago and had been the ‘youngest’ till Jisung’s turning. There had been very few records of his movements before he had joined the Lee Pack.

“Who are you?” The werewolf asks, tilting his head to the side.

Donghyuck puts on his best smile and holds out his hand. “Haechan,” he says cheerfully. “I was invited for breakfast.”

Lucas readily shakes his hand but just looks more confused. “No one told me we were having someone over for breakfast. “Taeyong-hyung!” he yells over his shoulder. “How come no one told me—”

“Lucas stop yelling,” a man chides, coming down the stairs. “We did tell you, you just weren’t listening.”

“Oh,” Lucas says, face clearing up. “Okay then.” He pats Donghyuck’s shoulder. “Nice to meet you! You smell good.” And then he’s heading off into the house, much like how Doyoung had left him.

“I’m Taeil,” the newcomer says. “Sorry about him, he has no manners.”

Donghyuck is beginning to suspect that none of them have manners.

“It’s nice to finally meet you. You were all the kids talked about yesterday.”

“Ah,” Donghyuck says. He wasn’t expecting that.

He knew his natural scent was appealing for werewolves (like honeysuckle and sunlight an older werewolf had described to him once, years ago) but this Pack seemed particularly influenced by it.

And they certainly weren’t shy about letting him know, Donghyuck thinks as Taeil leans in and takes an obvious sniff.

The older hums and nods with a faint smile. “Come with me. Breakfast is almost ready.” He takes Donghyuck’s hand and leads him the way Lucas had gone.

“Reach over my plate one more time and I’ll break your wrist!” is the first thing Donghyuck hears when he walks into a large dining room.

What looks to be the entire Pack is sitting at a large rectangular table, crowded too close to one another than is necessary with such a large table. Like the rest of the house, everything in the room looks to be modern and expensive, but it looks so well lived in that it’s welcoming. Opulent but homey.

He recognizes every face crowded around the table from his files. On the right side of the table sits Doyoung, Yuta, Jaemin, Renjun, Jeno, Jungwoo and then an empty chair. No one sits across from the bickering Doyoung and Yuta, but across from Jaemin is Kun, then Chenle, Sicheng, Jisung and then Lucas.

“No violence at the table,” Taeil says absentmindedly as he leaves Donghyuck’s side and goes to the far end of the table to sit in the empty chair next to Jungwoo.

“Haechan!” Jeno stands up and yells, barely avoiding elbowing Rejun and Jungwoo in the face. “Haechan’s here!”

“That’s what I said!” Jaemin yells at Jeno, leaning over Renjun.

“Oh, that’s Haechan? He’s cuter than I imagined.” Jungwoo says.

“Please, you’re all bark and no bite and I want some syrup,” Doyoung snaps as he reaches across Yuta for presumably the second time.

“Is that a free invitation then? Because I will be more—”

“Yuta! Doyoung! Knock it off, we have company!” Kun snaps as he gets up. He turns to Donghyuck with a smile. “Come on in, we’ve just sat down.” He takes Donghyuck’s hand and drags him to the empty chair next to him, across from Yuta.

“I’m Kun,” he says. “Chenle told me all about you,” he ruffles his hair and _Oh_. Maybe Kun was the one with the maternal instincts. “Go ahead and take whatever you want. Taeyong and Mark should be bringing out the orange juice soon.”

“You’re Haechan?” Yuta asks, leaning across the table and squinting at him. “I don’t get what the big deal is.”

Doyoung smacks the back of his head. “Don’t be so rude.”

“Oh no, it’s fin—” Donghyuck starts to say but Yuta ignores him.

“Fine. I’ll go sit with Sicheng. At least he appreciates me,” Yuta says, standing up and taking his plate of bacon and toast with him.

“Yuta!” Jungwoo exclaims happily as Yuta shoves his way into Jisung’s seat next to Sicheng, forcing Jisung to move down a seat which pushes a confused Lucas to the head of the table.

“Good riddance,” Doyoung yells after him, only to wince when Kun reaches over and smacks his shoulder.

Jaemin immediately scooches over to take Yuta’s abandoned seat and like they’re all connected, Renjun, Jeno, Jungwoo and Taeil all scoot down one seat as well.

“I knew you’d come. Jisung didn’t believe in you but I did,” Jaemin says with a smile.

“That’s not true!” Jisung stands up and yells from the other side of the table, only to have Yuta pull him back down by the back of his jacket.

“Yeah, he was afraid you would be scared off or something,” Renjun chimes in, talking around a mouthful of pancake. “But like, you lasted a whole day in classes with him and Chenle and seemed fine so I figured you wouldn’t be scared off easily.”

“Are you saying Chenle and Jisung are scary?” Donghyuck asks, amused. He reaches for the basket of biscuits in front of him and puts two on his plate.

“Chenle’s a menace,” Doyoung says with a shudder, shoveling pancakes in his mouth and, like Renjun, having no problem talking with his mouth full.

Werewolves in general were pretty bad with table manners, but this Pack was really taking it to the extreme. That, or they were not at all concerned with making a good impression.

“Hey!” Chenle yells in indignation, spewing egg bits across the table and onto Jeno’s plate.

Jeno pushes back from the table with a cry of disgust as Renjun bursts into laughter.

“Have some jam,” Kun says, pushing a jar of strawberry jam towards Donghyuck. “And don’t talk bad about Chenle,” he berates Doyoung. “He can’t help it if he has no social awareness.”

“Yeah!” Chenle leans over Kun to yell at Doyoung. “Wait, what?”

“Where’s Taeyong-hyung?” Lucas yells from the other end of the table and they all turn to look at him. “I’m dying of thirst over here. I have to hydrate to appreciate.”

“Why are you sitting there?” Doyoung yells back.

Lucas looks down as if just realizing he’s sitting at the head of the table. He looks up with wide, excited eyes. “Wait. Does this mean I’m the Alpha?”

“What the hell Lucas?!” Renjun yells at the same time Yuta and Doyoung yell “No!” and Taeil practically jumps out of his seat to clap a hand over his mouth. He and Lucas struggle for a second before Taeil whispers something in his ear that makes Lucas’s eyes go even wider.

“Seriously Lucas,” Jungwoo mumbles. Next to Lucas, Jisung massages his temples and Jaemin’s smile is much too wide to be natural.

Dear God, this Pack was just asking to be arrested.

“Lucas why are you even sitting there?” Kun asks, exasperated.

Lucas points an accusing finger at Jisung. “He pushed me out of my seat.”

Jisung points a finger at Yuta. “Yeah, because he pushed me out of mine.”

Yuta looks unconcerned by the accusation as he piles more bacon on his plate. “No one told you to sit there dumbass.”

The table quickly dissolves into a mess of insults, people teaming up to defend one another seemingly at random only to switch sides a minute later. Donghyuck tries to keep up with who’s defending who but all he’s getting out of it is that Kun is the only one not actively insulting anyone. Though he’s not making any move to defend anyone either.

He feels like they’ve all forgotten about him and it makes him smile. If they’re already this comfortable around him then it will be a piece of cake getting the information he wants out of them.

“HEY!” A voice booms from behind Donghyuck and everyone immediately settles down and goes back to eating their breakfast as if nothing had happened.

Donghyuck turns around to see Lee Taeyong standing in the doorway holding a pitcher of orange juice, the stern frown on his face juxtaposing the frilly pale blue apron he’s wearing. He feels like every other Alpha Donghyuck has ever met. Strong and steady.

“Hyung,” Doyoung says cheerfully. “We waited for you.” He shoves another bit of biscuit in his mouth.

Taeyong glares at him but then turns to Donghyuck with a kind smile, his features open and inviting. “Haechan, it’s so nice to meet you.” He sits in the empty seat next to Donghyuck, and from the odd looks Jaemin and Doyoung give the Alpha he can tell they weren’t expecting him to sit there. But the looks quickly disappear as if they had never been there.

“I’m Taeyong,” the Alpha says in that same calming tone, eyes focused on Donghyuck.

Donghyuck is relieved that the Alpha is at least making an attempt at discretely smelling him, unlike the rest of his Pack. But Donghyuck is so fine tuned to werewolves that it’s still pretty obvious that he’s being scented.

“The kids told me so much about you that I feel like I already know you,” he says with an easy going smile.

Donghyuck reflexively smiles back and will admit, if only in the safety of his own mind, that Taeyong is probably the best looking Alpha he’s met so far. He was incredibly easy on the eyes.

“Mark,” Kun says, looking at the doorway.

Donghyuck turns back around to see Mark awkwardly standing there, holding another pitcher of orange juice. He must have come in behind Taeyong.

“Are you going to sit down or what?” Kun asks.

“Pull up a chair,” Doyoung says, gesturing to the end of the table between him and Taeyong.

Mark pulls a face but doesn't say anything, just makes eyes at Taeyong, trying to tell him something. Donghyuck tries to catch the werewolf’s eye but it’s almost like Mark is looking everywhere but at him. Which was… interesting.

“You okay hyung?” Jaemin asks. “You look constipated.”

“What’s wrong?” Taeyong asks and makes to stand up but Mark quickly waves him down, looking vaguely panicked.

“No, no, I’m fine. I’m just gonna… sit over there,” he says and heads to the other end of the table to sit next to Taeil and Lucas.

“What’s up with him?” Doyoung mutters.

“He’s been weird since yesterday,” Renjun buts in, “But what else is new.”

“Okay, okay,” Taeyong says and Donghyuck watches as the Pack members easily drop the subject.

It was already obvious that Taeyong had a pretty good handle on his Pack and Donghyuck doubted anything happened within it that he didn’t know about. It was becoming increasingly obvious that in order to get Jisung or any of the teenagers to rat on the Alpha, he would have to work to create tension.

“So whose dad are you? You look awfully young.” Donghyuck asks Taeyong, hoping to embarrass someone. And it works like a charm as Doyoung and Kun burst into laughter and Taeyong’s face flushes a bright red.

“He’s not our dad!” Jaemin exclaims, face equally as red.

Beside him, Renjun is poorly concealing his own laughter. “Why on earth would you think that?”

Donghyuck adopts his best innocent expression. “That’s what Jeno said.”

Renjun screams in what is either delight or offense and tackles a surprised Jeno who had been turned the other way, talking with Chenle and Yuta. The impact knocks Jeno sideways off his chair and they both go crashing to the ground.

“Oh my god, Jeno you idiot!” Jaemin screams and jumps on top of the two wrestling teenagers.

“I- I’m not anyone’s father,” Taeyong stutters out, eyes wide and embarrassed.

Yeah, he was definitely easy on the eyes.

“But Jeno said his father, Taeyong, wanted to meet me to approve of me,” Donghyuck says, frowning in fake confusion. “That’s why I’m here for breakfast, right?”

Chenle and Jisung are suddenly sliding into Renjun and Jaemin’s vacant seats. “I told you Kun-hyung is my brother,” Chenle says.

“I’m your cousin,” Kun corrects.

“Same thing,” Chenle dismisses.

“Taeyong isn’t our dad,” Jisung says, as if it wasn’t clear already and as if he hadn’t made a similar comment the other day.

“Then who’s Jeno’s dad?” Donghyuck asks.

Doyoung’s laughter abruptly cuts off and everyone looks vaguely uncomfortable. Donghyuck frowns at the odd reaction. As far as he knew, Jeno’s father had never been in the picture. He had been raised in foster care until he was bitten by a rogue omega when he was 12. The omega had been taken down by Hunters and Taeyong had taken the newly turned werewolf into his Pack with no questions. He didn’t know why they were acting so strange.

Taeyong throws an arm over his shoulders. “I’m his legal guardian,” he says with a smile and the tense atmosphere breaks.

“So you’re the one who thinks I might be a bad influence?” Donghyuck asks with a smile, leaning into Taeyong’s shoulder like a Packmate would. This close, he can pick up a hint of cinnamon coming off the Alpha. While his senses were nowhere near as sharp as a werewolf’s, they were leagues better than a human’s.

From the corner of his eye he sees Doyoung studying him, his food forgotten. There’s a gleam in his eye that Donghyuck really doesn’t like and the easy going demeanor he’s had all morning is gone. The werewolf looks suspicious.

Taeyong’s face fights between a smile and a grimace. “Yes, well, I wasn’t aware Jeno would tell you that when I said it. But yes, I would like to get to know the one who has befriended the kids so quickly.”

“Well, ask away,” Donghyuck says. “I’m an open book.”

“How old are you?” Kun immediately asks.

“Seventeen. I told you that already,” Chenle says at the same time Donghyuck says, “I turn eighteen in two months.”

“Who do you live with? Your parents? Do you have any siblings?” Doyoung asks, the gleam in his eyes just a tad too sharp.

“It’s just me and my brother,” Donghyuck says. “He’s actually the new deputy and the reason we moved here.”

“Oh, a brother.” Doyoung’s face relaxes.

And it’s always so satisfying to see suspicions erased so easily. While very little was known about Enforcers, there was one fundamental truth that the entire supernatural world knew: Enforcers worked alone.

“You should bring him by sometime!” Doyoung says. “Our Sicheng is actually an advocate in the depart— knock it off you four!” He turns and yells at Jeno, Jaemin and Renjun who are still wrestling on the ground. And from the looks of it, they’ve somehow dragged Jisung into their fight as well. “If you’re just gonna mess around then you can do the dishes.”

“But it’s Jungwoo-hyungs turn to do the dishes,” Jeno says, pushing Renjun off him and standing up.

“We have to leave for school soon,” Renjun seconds.

“I wasn’t even doing anything!” Jisung complains and Jaemin is already up and gathering dishes with Jungwoo.

Chenle jumps up with a cry of “Wait for me!” and then dashes out of the room after Jisung and Jeno.

“Guess that’s my cue,” Kun says and stands up. “Have to make sure they don’t break anything,” he winks and then he too leaves.

“What are we talking about?” Taeil asks as he takes the empty seat in front of Donghyuck.

“Haechan’s brother is the new deputy,” Taeyong says as he removes his arm from around Donghyuck to get what has to be his third plate of bacon. “Lucas and Yuta head out already?”

“Yup. Our Sicheng works with the police department, you know. Next time you come over you should bring your brother.”

“That’s what I said!” Doyoung exclaims.

“Okay guys don’t scare him off,” Taeyong says. “We don’t mean to pressure you into anything, I know we can be a bit much.”

“Oh no,” Donghyuck says. “I think you're all great! It’s just been Johnny and I for so long and it’s nice to be around such a big loving family.”

Taeyong visibly preens at that like Donghyuck knew he would.

“And I really like Jeno and everyone so I would really like to come back.” He ducks his head. “If that’s alright with you of course. If you think I’m a bad influence I completely understand and I’ll respect your decision. I won’t bother them.”

Taeyong coos in the back of his throat and puts his arm back around Donghyuck’s shoulder. “We really like you too,” he says.

“Are you just gonna sit over there by yourself?” Taeil asks and they all turn to look at the far side of the table where Mark sits by himself.

Mark looks at them with wide eyes. “Oh, um… I was talking to,” he gestures to the empty seat in front of him, “Sicheng-hyung…” he trails off. “Uhh, no. Okay, yeah,” he says awkwardly and gets up to sit in the seat next to Taeil.

He sits stiff and doesn’t look in Donghyuck’s direction. His avoidance was really starting to grate on Donghyuck’s nerves. And like a lightbulb going off in his head, Donghyuck belatedly realizes it's just what he needs to start sowing the seeds of unrest.

It was obvious he wouldn’t be able to get the teenagers to directly turn on their Alpha. So he’d just have to get them to unconsciously turn against him through another member. While his usual procedure was cozying up to a Pack member and Memory Diving to get the information he wanted, there had been a few cases in the past where they weren't looking for past actions, but looking to prevent future actions. In those cases, he found points of tension between a Pack member and the Alpha and applied pressure. Made the Pack member doubt their Alpha, turned their insecurities against them. Once alone, it was a piece of cake to get the lonely werewolf to do what he wanted. Could even convince them it was in their best interest to leave the Pack.

Here, maybe instead of using tension between a Pack member and the Alpha, he could use the weird tension Mark was causing between the two of them. A plan slowly starts to form in Donghyuck’s mind. Mark was the weakest link. If he applied enough pressure, Mark would surely snap at him and that would be enough for Donghyuck to twist to suit his needs.

Werewolves were all the same and Donghyuck knew the kids would be devastated by Mark’s behavior towards him, that they would instinctively seek out their Alpha. All he had to do was get them to lean on him before they went to Taeyong or another Pack member. Then it would be child’s play to isolate them, whisper words against their Alpha. Get them to believe that it wasn’t just Mark, all the older werewolves had been mean to him the entire time and _tell me friends, what was Taeyong really like? Has he ever forced you to do something you didn’t want? Been too interested in other humans? Your secret is safe with me._

It wasn’t Donghyuck’s usual approach by any means, but with how tense Mark was around him it would take no time to get him to snap. As it stood right now, it would be the quickest way to get out of this mess of a job. Sure, he probably wouldn’t figure out what happened the night of the fire, but it wasn’t really their job. Johnny would determine whether or not it was the Jungs who had attacked the Lee Pack in such a flamboyant way, drawing the attention of humans, and if they would do such a thing again and risk exposing either themselves or the Lee Pack. And through the Emissary he would find out if Taeyong had really killed the human deputy. And even if he hadn’t, Donghyuck would determine if Taeyong was biting humans as he wished, if he was unstable, a threat to supernatural secrecy.

Determined, Donghyuck subtly scooches closer to Taeyong. “I met Mark at school yesterday. He told me if I didn’t have anything nice to say then I shouldn’t say anything at all.”

“Mark,” Taeyong lightly scolds and Mark _finally_ looks at him.

He points an accusing finger at him. “He called me a dick first,” he says, eyes wide.

Donghyuck shrugs and leans over the table and says to Doyoung and Taeil in a loud whisper, “I was trying to flirt with him but I don’t think he picked up on it.” And as Donghyuck was counting on, Doyoung bursts into laughter and Taeil starts elbowing Mark.

“Our Mark is a little dense in these kinds of things,” Taeil says with a shit-eating grin.

What Donghyuck wasn’t counting on was the intensity of Mark’s reaction. Mark’s face slowly turns red and his lips press into a straight line.

“I— You— That’s not what happened at all!” he says too loudly. “I didn’t— you were clearly— You weren’t f-flirting! Stop lying!”

It’s better than he could have hoped for. Gone is that annoying monotone and dismissive look. Mark is looking right at him. Donghyuck sighs loudly, eager to push. “It seems I’m doomed to always fall for the cute but slow ones.”

Doyoung’s laugh gets impossibly louder and he reaches behind Taeil to slap Mark on the back. “Is this why you’ve been acting so weird? You don’t know how to handle a crush?”

“I don’t have a crush on him!” Mark sputters out, looking just this side of angry.

Doyoung’s smile twists unpleasantly and his eyes light up. “I was talking about Haechan’s crush! But now you’re making me think you have one too!”

Taeil reaches across the table and clasps Donghyuck’s hands in between his own. “Haechan. I admire you for your bravery in telling us about your crush. I’m a big fan of yours.”

Donghyuck smiles and pushes a little more. He needs the Alpha to say something and not just smile at the scene unfolding before him. He turns to Taeyong and puts on his best puppy eyes. “Will you please tell me Mark’s favorite things. If I’m gonna get him to like me back I’m gonna need all the help I can get. What’s his favorite dish? Do you think I stand a chance if I cook for him?”

Taeyong smiles and ruffles his hair. “Mark can’t cook to save his life. I’m sure if you boiled some noodles he would already be impressed with you. He’s pretty hopeless in—”

“Okay!” Mark yells, standing up. “I’m taking the kids to school now. Bye.”

“I thought I was taking them?” Haechan asks. “I mean, I just thought you would be okay with it now,” he looks at Taeyong with wide eyes and goes in for the kill. “Is it okay if I drive them, Taeyong- _hyung_?”

Taeyong smiles, his eyes blatantly showing his pleasure. “Of course you can. It’s very generous of you Haechan.”

Mark practically stomps out of the room. Donghyuck 1, Mark 0.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Donghyuck: I've examined all possible options and have concluded that I have no choice but to flirt with Mark. There are obviously no other solutions.
> 
> Also, I feel the need to explain that I completely made up the phone number. There is zero meaning behind those numbers other than to illustrate Johnny's phone number isn't saved in Donghyuck's phone.


	4. Ripples: They're Actually Tidal Waves

Donghyuck quickly realizes that his first day of school wasn’t just some strange fluke. With the exception of Renjun, the kids were pretty careless with hiding their werewolf traits from him. While he can’t think of any excuses for Jeno, Jaemin and Chenle’s behavior, he can at least put Jisung’s down to him being a newly turned werewolf. But even then, the youngest is so painfully naive to being a werewolf that Donghyuck can’t help but join the others in helping him out and ignoring the obvious supernatural signs.

_“Dude, do you have allergies or something?” Donghyuck asks, giving Jisung an easy out when one of the girls in their class wears a strong perfume that Jisung doesn’t know how to block out. “Why do you keep sneezing?”_

_“It’s a genetic disorder,” Chenle blurts out unhelpfully and all Donghyuck can do is hide his grimace behind a smile and a nod._

_But even Renjun’s sense of secrecy is awful, especially when he gets caught up in Jeno and Jaemin’s antics._

_“You know I hate going on runs unless they’re absolutely necessary. You two go by yourselves,” Renjun whines one day at lunch._

_“But Injun!” Jaemin protests, shaking the smaller boy’s shoulder. “It’s not as fun without you! It’s dry outside so you won’t get mud in your fur! And I promise we’ll groom you afterwards!”_

_“I feel you Renjun. I don’t like getting all sweaty and gross when I go jogging either,” Donghyuck says, because they’re talking right over him and there’s no way he can pretend he didn’t hear them._

_“Renjun always smells really nice after a run,” Jeno chimes in._

_Donghyuck doesn’t know what to say to that but Renjun’s red face and subsequent screeching “How is wet dog nice!?” doesn’t help any so he pretends to be preoccupied with his phone._

But as the days pass it becomes increasingly obvious how painfully easy it is to become friends with them, and it takes less than a week for Donghyuck to find himself seamlessly incorporated into their everyday routine as if he had been there the whole time.

After only knowing him for two days, they had invited him to hang out with them over the weekend, giving him a personal tour around the town. (Donghyuck exerts an unprecedented amount of control in not commenting on how cute it was that all their favorite places were parks) And each afternoon they return to the Lee House for dinner.

And when it's time to return to school on Monday, it's an unspoken rule that Donghyuck be at their house every morning for breakfast and then drive them to school. He spends the entire school day around at least two of them at any given moment and everyday he takes them home and, more often than not, stays for dinner.

It’s… unexpected.

He’s done infiltration type jobs a dozen times before but it normally takes him longer than a week to get this close. To get this much trust. And while Donghyuck knows the Lee Pack has someone following him home each night (usually Lucas or Yuta, but he can occasionally sense Doyoung, the only one who seems to be making an effort in concealing his presence) it's so obvious that they trust him.

Wednesday morning gives him definitive proof.

Donghyuck has barely walked through the front doors of the Lee House when Jaemin grabs his hand and leads him to one of the living rooms.

“Everything okay?” Donghyuck asks, not liking the serious look on the other’s face.

“Yeah, yeah. It’s just, I kind of wanted to talk to you about something in private.”

“Okay,” Donghyuck says warily. Jaemin is glancing around nervously and looks oddly worried. Concerned.

In the week he’s known the Lee Pack, Donghyuck has gotten a pretty good grasp on the werewolves, especially the younger ones. And from what he knows about the teenager so far, there’s only a handful of things that would get him this worked up. And even fewer things that would require him to talk to Donghyuck alone. “Is this about Jeno and Renjun? Did you get rejected? Please don’t make me choose sides.”

“What?” Jaemin asks, frowning. “No. What are you talking about?”

“Nothing, never mind. What did you want to say?”

Jaemin gives him another odd look before he’s serious again. “Okay, this is going to sound kind of weird but… we don’t really get along with this one family. The Jungs. And since you’ve been hanging out with us I just wanted to give you a heads up. Like, if you run into one of them you should tell us okay? They’re trouble.”

Jaemin looks so sincere and concerned that Donghyuck is momentarily taken aback. He didn’t know what he had been expecting but this certainly wasn’t it. “Why don’t you guys get along?” he asks.

“It’s a long story but just know that it’s probably for the best if you avoid them.”

“What, are they going to hurt me for hanging out with you guys or something?” Donghyuck pushes.

Jaemin bites his lip. “It’s not that, per se. It’s really hard to explain, but it's better to be safe than sorry.” He abruptly pulls Donghyuck into a hug. “We all really like you Haechan and friends give each other heads up right? So just… if you ever run into one of them you should tell us, okay? I can’t really explain it but can you please just trust me on this?”

Donghyuck stands frozen for a moment before his arms slowly wrap around Jaemin, a strange lump in his throat. Jaemin just had strong maternal instincts he reasons with himself. That was the reason he was feeling so affected by his unnecessary concern. “Okay,” he says.

“Promise us,” Jaemin says fiercely, speaking in plural even though it's just him.

The lump in his throat grows larger, becomes almost unbearable as Donghyuck realizes Jaemin wasn’t acting on his own. All of the kids had probably talked this over. “I prom—”

“What are you doing?” A voice cuts in and Jaemin and Donghyuck jump apart.

Donghyuck clears his throat, pushing down whatever sentimental emotions Jaemin had been pulling out of him, and looks over to see an unimpressed Mark standing in the doorway.

“Long time no see,” Donghyuck says. And it's somewhat true. Despite being in the Lee House everyday for the past week, Donghyuck hasn’t seen Mark since that first breakfast. It was quite annoying and counterproductive.

“We’re just talking hyung, jeez. What’s up with the stink face?” Jaemin asks, walking towards Mark. “Where have you been anyway? I feel like I haven’t seen you in forever.”

Mark’s face crunches up. “I’ve been busy.”

Jaemin mimics the face back at him. “Whatever. Lets go Haechan, before Lucas eats everything.” And he’s walking out of the room, not even looking to see if Donghyuck is following him.

And really, how was Donghyuck supposed to walk away from Mark like that? There was no way he was passing up this opportunity. He waits until he’s certain Jaemin isn’t coming back and puts on his best innocent expression, eyes wide.

“Busy with what?” he asks as sweetly as he can.

Mark’s grimace is poorly concealed. “It’s none of your business,” he says in that same annoying monotone from when they first met. And then he’s turning around to leave. Dismissing him again.

“So you are avoiding me!” Donghyuck calls out and Mark’s back stiffens.

He turns around, lips pursed. “I am not avoiding you. I’ve been busy.”

Donghyuck takes a few steps towards the werewolf. It was obvious the man was trying to keep a neutral face but he was failing terribly at it. “Busy with what?” he sing-songs.

Mark glares at him. “It’s none of your business.” There’s obvious annoyance in his voice now.

“Soooo you’re avoiding me.”

“I’m not avoiding you. I’ve been busy.”

“Busy with what?”

“It’s none of yo—” Mark cuts off with a confused frown. And really, it shouldn’t be that adorable.

Donghyuck grins. “It’s okay if you’ve been hiding from me. I know crushing on me is pretty intimidating, but I promise I won’t reject you.”

Mark flushes an angry red. “I am not crushing on you.”

“The first step to healing is acceptance you know.”

“I am not crushing on you!”

“Wow. Your denial goes deeper than I suspected. Is that why you can’t look me in the eyes for longer than five seconds? I promise you won’t turn to stone.”

“I— what?” Mark asks, bewildered, but a smile starts to creep its way on his lips.

Donghyuck frowns, thrown off by Mark’s abrupt change in attitude. That wasn’t supposed to happen.

“Did you just call yourself Medusa?” And to Donghyuck’s horror, the werewolf lets out a small giggle. “Oh my god, do you just say whatever you’re thinking?”

“If I did, the first thing I would have said is how dumb your shirt looks with that jacket! It’s giving me a headache just looking at it and you look like a toddler dressed you,” Donghyuck bites out and is satisfied to see the other’s smile fall.

“Does it really look dumb?” he asks, eyes wide with worry and Donghyuck is left wondering where the stone faced stuck-up werewolf he first met went. But then Mark’s eyes narrow and the stone face is back. “It’s not dumb, you’re just trying to irritate me.”

Donghyuck puts his hands in the air. “I would never! Why would I want to upset such a cutie? If anything I’m trying to seduce you.”

The flush is back with a vengeance. “Stop saying weird stuff! I—” he stops mid sentence and jerks his head around. A few seconds later, Yuta pokes his head around the doorway.

“Oh? Am I interrupting something?” he asks with a wide smile.

“No,” Mark says as Donghyuck says “Yes.”

“Ohhh, a lovers spat,” Yuta exclaims, going over to casually sling an arm over Donghyuck’s shoulder. “Have you finally realized what a loser Mark is?” he asks.

“Hyung!” Mark complains as Donghyuck laughs.

“All joking aside though,” Yuta says and then Donghyuck is shrieking as Yuta slides his arm around his neck and puts him in a chokehold. “You can’t be the designated driver anymore if you’re gonna make everyone late. The kids have been waiting on you and if you don’t get your ass out there in the next 30 seconds I’ll ban you from hanging around the house.”

“You can’t do that!” Donghyuck chokes out, and damn if Yuta wasn’t stronger than he expected. If he activated the tattoo on his right flank he could overpower the older werewolf, but he didn’t sense any real danger. He never felt in danger around any of them.

“Try me kid,” Yuta says and then releases him and gently pushes him towards the door. “Now get going you brat. And try not to get into any trouble at school.”

Donghyuck grumbles his displeasure, Yuta’s wide grin only irritating him more. He was 22 years old. He wasn’t a kid.

He looks over his shoulder at Mark. “Bye gorgeous,” he calls. “I’ll be thinking of you till we meet again.” He dashes out of the room before he can see Mark’s response, but he’s certain the werewolf is flushing some unattractive shade of red again.

Yuta’s laughter echoes down the halls after him.

* * *

A week later finds Donghyuck sitting in the town’s only diner. It’s nearing midnight and he has school tomorrow, but this is the only time he’s had to read over the notes Johnny has left for him. Between him picking the kids up in the mornings, school, and hanging out with them after school and Johnny occupying the Emissary and the Jung’s attention, it’s been hard for them to find the time to debrief one another on what they’ve been doing; to keep each other up to date. And tonight is no different as Johnny is out doing who knows what with the youngest Jung.

It wasn’t uncommon for missions to end up like this, so all Enforcers were trained in cryptology with each Enforcer pair developing their own unique ciphers. When they had the time they would write their findings and leave it for the other to decrypt and read when they could. As it stood, Donghyuck had several days worth of Johnny’s reports to read through.

Donghyuck takes a sip of his coffee and, with the ease of years of practice, mentally translates the words on the page in front of him.

_…a single unit. Any movements made by Jung Jihyun have no doubt been in agreement with Jung Mina and vice versa. So far they give the impression of defense rather than offense. Jung Jaehyun displays no overt negative opinions about the Lee family but his silence around his grandfather speaks volumes. My suspicions of his involvement with the Lee Alpha—_

The diner’s front door opens and a half dozen boys that look to be of high school age come in, obviously intoxicated and rowdy. Donghyuck rolls his eyes and goes back to reading the report.

_…the Lee Alpha are still strong. I was able to obtain Jaehyun’s phone for a brief period and noticed he had frequent messages with a “TY” up until almost three months ago. While I didn’t have time to read the contents of the messages, this is concurrent wit—_

“Hey lady! Can we get some fries over here?” Someone yells from the other side of the diner.

Someone loudly clears their throat and Donghyuck tiredly looks up to see one of the high schoolers standing at the end of his table, a confident smile on his face. Donghyuck immediately pegs him as an incubus. Uncommon in this region, but nothing to write home about.

“I didn’t see you at the game. I definitely would have remembered a pretty face like yours,” the incubus says and even throws in a wink.

Donghyuck raises an unimpressed eyebrow. He looks at the letterman jacket the incubus is wearing and vaguely recalls that there had been a football game tonight. He spares a glance towards the other kids and sees they’re wearing similar jackets. They must be from the competing team and going by their rambunctiousness and the demon’s cocky demeanor, they must have won.

Another quick look reveals that two of the other footballers are also incubi. Part of the same clan most likely. Donghyuck doesn't have the time or energy for this.

“I didn’t go,” Donghyuck says bluntly, turning his attention back to his work. To his irritation, the incubus somehow takes that as an invitation to sit down in his booth.

The next five minutes are pure torture as the incubus attempts to make small talk with him, undeterred by Donghyuck’s blantantly uninterested hums. He might not be able to make any overt moves against the incubus, especially with two of his kin so close, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t be a bitch about it.

“This is actually a GMT-Master III Deluxe Rolex. There’s only fifty in the whole world and I—”

“Would you look at the time!” Donghyuck says loudly looking at his bare wrist, unable to take it anymore. He’ll just have to read Johnny’s reports at home. He’d obviously been too optimistic thinking he could do this in public in peace.

He deftly packs his papers into his book bag and leaves the diner without glancing back. But the satisfaction evaporates only a minute later when he senses two of the incubi following him.

Now he’s seriously starting to get pissed off.

He turns from the parking lot and heads towards the woods, luring them away from the lights and any prying eyes. It would be as easy as anything to incapacitate both of them and make it look like an accident. His irritation turns into amusement. He hasn’t stretched in a while and he hadn’t sensed anyone from the Lee Pack following him tonight. These incubi really should have stayed in the diner.

When he’s far enough in the woods that a human would only be able to see a few feet in front of them, he starts slowing down. A few seconds later and he can feel them right behind him. One of them coming forward to stand much too close.

“A pretty human like you shouldn’t be all alone at an hour such as this.”

Donghyuck’s amusement vanishes with those words, replaced with affront.

Where were their sires? As soon as this mission was over he was going to find a way to let them know of their progeny’s sheer stupidity. There was no excuse for them to be so transparent and careless about their nature.

A hand grabs his shoulder and he’s about to activate the IMPERCEPTIBLE on his right forearm and give these idiots the scare of a lifetime when a nasty snarl rips through the night. A figure flashes by Donghyuck and the incubus holding him gives a cry of surprise as he’s flung backwards.

A strong arm wraps around Donghyuck’s waist and pulls him to their side, into a sturdy chest. And then all he can sense is Mark Lee, all around him.

They’re pressed so close to one another that when Mark snarls “Back off,” the vibrations rumble through his chest and into Donghyuck’s.

The incubus stands up, brushing stray leaves and dirt from his letterman jacket. He gives them an amused smile, seemingly unconcerned that he was just thrown through the air. The other incubus hides a few feet back in the darkness, silently watching, assessing.

“How interesting. You didn’t tell me you had an attack dog, princess,” the obnoxious incubus says.

“I don’t remember telling you anything,” Donghyuck snaps.

“Quiet,” Mark says softly.

“Back off, Lee. This has nothing to do with your lot,” the incubus continues.

“When you try to take what is ours, it has everything to do with ‘our lot’.”

Donghyuck’s heart does a strange flutter at the defensive words. It was probably from his irritation at being talked about like he was an object.

The demon throws his head back and laughs. “Yours? I smell no such thing. What use does the infamous Lee Taeyong have for this pretty thing?”

Mark hesitates a touch too long and Donghyuck’s palpitations vanish. Now all he wants to do is punch the werewolf. Did he really just come barging in with no plan other than Push The Incubi Away?

“He is under our protection,” Mark finally says.

“Oh? For some reason I just don’t believe you. I think you have no legitimate claim to this cutie. If he wants to come with us, who are you to stop him?”

Donghyuck feels the incubus push out his pheromones, trying to entice him and put him under a thrall. And really, this was such a blatant and obnoxious abuse of the ability. Any self-respecting Incubi Elder wouldn’t hesitate to kick this fledgling into next year. If Donghyuck were actually a human he wouldn’t be able to resist the temptation and would go to the incubus. The only way a human is able to resist is when they are in… Donghyuck smirks, a fun plan forming in his mind.

Mark growls at the incubus and pulls Donghyuck closer to him, as if he were afraid Donghyuck would leave his side.

For a fleeting moment Donghyuck has a horrible thought: if he really were human would he feel the pull or was he already too interest— he shuts that train of thought down. He had no need for such useless speculations.

“Enough,” Mark growls, his grip around Donghyuck’s waist almost painfully tight.

Donghyuck turns in Mark’s embrace and wraps his arms around the werewolf’s neck. “Oh don’t be so jealous Mark,” Donghyuck says with an exasperated sigh. “You know I’m yours.”

Mark looks down at him with wide, surprised eyes.

Donghyuck looks over at the incubus and gives a sly smile. “My boyfriend can be really possessive of me so I suggest you scram before he does more than push you.”

The incubus narrows his eyes, drawing the expected erroneous conclusion for why his pheromones weren’t affecting Donghyuck. Still, the incubus doesn’t look convinced. “Boyfriend?”

While Mark’s impression of a wooden plank was hilarious, Donghyuck wished he would play along and back him up here. A simple, ‘yeah we’re dating’ would be enough. It looked like he would have to do all the work. Typical.

Fighting the urge to roll his eyes, Donghyuck casually tilts his head to the side, baring his neck to Mark. Werewolves didn’t casually date, known for their almost unhealthy level of commitment, and if they could sell themselves as boyfriends then that would be more than enough of an explanation for why Donghyuck wasn’t reacting to the pheromones. There was no way the incubi would keep bothering someone a werewolf had claimed.

Sure, Donghyuck could think of a dozen other ways to get out of this mess, but this was the most fun. Though he had hoped to get a little more of a reaction than—

Mark leans forward and brushes his nose along his neck, inhaling. Scenting him.

Donghyuck can’t stop his body from jolting forward. He had planned on Mark verbally confirming their relationship status; if he was feeling particularly daring maybe even putting a hand on Donghyuck’s throat to assert dominance. Not fucking scenting him.

Holy shit. Mark Lee was scenting him like they were actually courting.

The incubus makes a loud disgusted noise and Mark violently flinches away from Donghyuck.

“Fucking mutts,” the demon mutters. “Whatever, keep the bitch. It’s not worth it anyway.” With one last disgusted look, he heads back to the diner, the other incubus silently joining him.

Donghyuck decisively places any “Mark scented me” thoughts in a box and locks it away for later. And as his surprise settles he becomes increasingly aware that Mark still has his arms around his waist.

He can work with this.

“Not that I don’t appreciate you swooping in to save me,” Donghyuck leans forward so his lips are next to Mark’s ears, “But don’t you know that gentlemen should use their tongues instead of their fists.”

Mark shoves him away and Donghyuck bursts into laughter. He gives the werewolf his sleaziest wink and Mark’s subsequent frown only makes him laugh harder.

“Don’t be so serious! I’m just messing with you.”

Mark doesn’t look amused in the slightest. “You should take things more seriously. What were you thinking going out in the middle of the woods by yourself at this hour?”

“Maybe I was waiting for my Prince Charming to come and save me.” Donghyuck nudges Mark’s shoulder with his own. “And he did!”

Donghyuck’s carefree demeanor only serves to irritate Mark. “That doesn’t even make any sense! You don’t put yourself in danger and just wait for someone to come rescue you! You could have been seriously hurt!”

“Awww, were you scared for me? That’s so sweet. I knew you were a big softie.”

Mark narrows his eyes. “It’s useless talking to you. I’m going home.”

“And leave me all by myself out here?” Donghyuck points out.

Mark stiffens and flushes as he realizes his mistake. “Yes,” he bites out and walks away with his head held high.

“So prideful,” Donghyuck mutters to himself, smiling.

He starts the walk back to the diner and his car. He doesn’t think about how nice it had felt being held in Mark’s arms. Doesn’t think about how fast his heart had pounded. He doesn’t think about the fact that neither of them mentioned how Mark had scented his neck.

On the drive home he can feel Mark’s presence outside, running alongside his car. It’s only when he closes the apartment door behind him that the presence starts to fade away, assured that he has gotten home safe.

How cute, Donghyuck thinks.

* * *

While the kids are consistently inconsistent on how everyone is related, they never deviate from their story of Jisung being a distant cousin of Jaemin. In fact, it’s the only familial relation they all agree on. Donghyuck is pretty certain the only reason they all have their story straight is because Taeyong coached them on it when Jisung was first turned.

Per his file, Donghyuck knows Jisung’s maternal grandfather lives in town, that Jisung had lived with him up until almost eight weeks ago. At this point, he’s almost completely certain Jisung wasn’t bitten against his will, but it would be careless to base his conclusions with only a few pieces of the puzzle.

But for all the kids' carelessness about their preternatural abilities, they were like a brick wall about Jisung’s actual blood relation, never so much as mentioning the grandfather despite the fact that he lived in the same town.

Donghyuck really didn’t want to have to handle a direct confrontation with the grandfather- it would be messy and he didn’t want to have to bother with calling in clean up if the grandfather told anyone about his visit- but it was looking like he would have to.

It’s three weeks into his stay at Greenville that he gets lucky and overhears a conversation that both solves the problem for him and creates a drastically larger one.

“—all his stuff on the curb. I kind of panicked and grabbed a bag of clothes. Should I give it to him? Oh! Haechan!”

Donghyuck turns around at the sound of his name, confused that anyone at Richards High other than the Lee Pack knows his name. He literally hasn’t talked to any of the other students here. Still, the petite human who’d called out to him looks relieved to have his attention. He has no idea who she is.

“You hang out with the Lee’s right? You’re their friend.”

“Yeah,” he says cautiously, uncertain what the human wants from him. He fights the urge to fidget. He hated talking with humans, he never knew what they were thinking.

“I have some of Jisung’s stuff in my car. Could you give it to him for me?”

Donghyuck tilts his head to the side. “Why do you have his stuff? And why can’t you give it to him yourself?”

The girl looks vaguely uncomfortable. “I mean, I guess I can. I just didn’t want to upset anyone.” She leans forward and lowers her voice into a whisper. “They’re all still so sensitive about him, I didn’t know if me going up to him might trigger some instinct or something.” She smiles at him. “But they’re not so protective over you for some rea—” she abruptly cuts off and her eyes widen as if she’s just realized something. “Oh my god! You’re not a wer—” Her face pales and she leans back in horror.

Donghyuck carefully keeps his own horror at bay. “I’m not a what exactly?” Donghyuck questions slowly. Fuck, he was so stupid.

The first step Donghyuck always took whenever he entered a new job was to determine how aware the community was of supernatural activity. It was an Enforcers primary goal to determine if a supernatural being had made humans aware of their existence. And yet, somehow, Donghyuck had skipped this, gone straight into investigating if Jisung had been unwillingly turned or not, into trying to figure out what happened that night of the fire. It wasn’t his business to figure out the details, just to determine if the Confidentiality Act had been violated or was in danger of being violated. How had he forgotten to do this?

He thinks back to his first day here. He had met the Lee kids and they had pulled him in. He had been distracted. Derailed.

But even if everyday he internally bemoaned how obvious the teenagers were, they were only like that around him. They didn’t talk to the humans at school, they kept to themselves. Surely some random human teenager didn’t know.

Don’t say werewolf don’t say werewolf don’t say werewolf don’t say werewolf

And as quickly as it had appeared, the girl’s surprise fades into a confused frown. “But then they wouldn’t treat you— oh!” Her eyes wide again, this time in understanding. “You must have been like, born that way.” She gives an embarrassed laugh. “Sorry about that, I’m a little sleep deprived so I’ve been a little out of it all day. But yeah, I have a bag of his clothes if he wants it.”

Donghyuck doesn’t know what to say. The implications of what this human was implying were huge. He desperately reaches out with his senses but the girl is painfully human; not even a speck of supernatural runs through her veins. If she knew the kids were werewolves then who else knew? Did her friends know? Who were her friends? Did she know the Jungs were Hunters?

“I’ll give the clothes to him,” he says.

“Cool, can you meet me after school? I’m the black Altima parked near the gym.”

“Yeah,” Donghyuck says vaguely, his mind running a million miles an hour. And then the girl is turning back to her friends and walking away, oblivious to how she might have just condemned the Lee Pack.

* * *

Jisung’s grandfather is demented and hasn’t been able to properly care for a healthy teenaged boy for quite some time now, the girl whose name he still doesn’t know tells him as she hands over a trashbag filled with clothes.

“He probably didn’t even realize what he was throwing out,” she defends him.

Donghyuck nods and takes the bag.

“I’m happy Taeyong finally,” she raises her eyebrows, “you know. We were kind of worried social services would come for him.”

“We?” Donghyuck questions, the knot that’s been tightening in his stomach all day grows into an abyss.

He can’t overlook such an infraction. Even one human knowing was one too many. The Council might have not wanted them to Memory Dive due to the risks, but it was obvious the Council wasn’t fully aware of the situation here.

Who had even made the initial report to the Council? How could this have been overlooked?

Donghyuck makes the decision right then. It was better to ask for the Council and Johnny’s forgiveness then ask for permission.


	5. Memory Diving: Enter At Your Own Risk

Like he’s been doing everyday, Donghyuck drives the kids home from school and stays for dinner. He quietly excuses himself from the ruckus in the dining room to go to the bathroom, easily slipping out of the chaos. The front room on the first floor, near the entrance, is his best bet. In less than a minute he unlocks one of the windows and just like that he’s secured himself a way in later tonight. He’s only just exited the room, heading back to the dining room, when he all but runs into someone.

“What are you doing?”

Donghyuck looks up to see an unamused Mark, his brows furrowed in suspicion. Donghyuck quickly regains his composure and leans against the doorframe, hip cocked. “Did you miss me so much you came looking for me?”

Mark rolls his eyes and brushes past him. And while Donghyuck doesn’t want to invite questions about what he’s doing lingering around the living room, his irritation at being dismissed is greater. The werewolf had scented him a few nights ago! Did that mean nothing?

“What are _you_ doing?” he asks, following Mark as he goes upstairs.

Mark continues to ignore him.

“Ohhhh, ignoring me still? I know you like to play hard to get but, after all we’ve been through together, aren’t you being too harsh on poor little me?”

Mark gives an unflattering snort but answers him. “Jungwoo left his laptop in his office so I’m getting it for him.”

Donghyuck frowns. “Why can’t he get it himself?”

Mark shrugs. “He’s busy so I offered. It’s just upstairs.”

Donghyuck hums. Now that he thought about it, it seemed like Mark was _always_ doing something for someone. Everything from running small errands for Pack members to offering to cook with Taeyong. And before Donghyuck came, it had been mostly Mark that drove the kids to and from school. In fact, he’s certain Mark wasn’t one of the Pack members assigned to tailing him at night; which meant he must have covered for someone else that night at the diner.

Maybe Mark honestly hadn’t been avoiding him; he was truly too busy.

“Wait here,” Mark says, entering a room and closing the door behind him, but Donghyuck isn’t really paying attention anymore.

There’s an uncomfortable itch in his chest. Did Mark not know how to say no? Surely the other Pack members weren’t always asking him to do things. It had to be that Mark was volunteering for everything. 

Donghyuck shakes his head. What the hell was he worrying about? Mark was literally just getting a laptop for his Packmate. It wasn’t that big a deal.

The door opens and Mark comes out holding a laptop under his arm. He gets a glimpse of a sleek office before the door is quickly shut again.

Ah, Jungwoo must be somewhat territorial. Werewolves were finicky about their territory and even if Donghyuck’s scent was appealing and he had befriended Jungwoo over the past weeks, the older werewolf still wouldn’t appreciate having his scent in his private office.

Donghyuck skips after Mark who’s started down the hallway without him and clings to his free arm. The familiar scent of pine swirls around him. “Maaark~ why are you being so serious? Stop being so uptight.”

“I’m not uptight.”

“Uhhh yeah you are. I’ve never even heard you laugh before. _Can_ you even laugh?”

Mark pauses. “I laugh,” he says, and there’s something off in his voice. Mark gives him a considering look, much too serious.

“What?” Donghyuck asks defensively. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Maybe you’re just not that funny.” He shakes his arm out of Donghyuck’s grip and heads down the stairs.

“Wh— Hey! I’m fucking hilarious! Hey! Wait for me!”

* * *

The night is black and the forest alive with the call of insects as Donghyuck creeps to the Lee House. It had taken more effort than he would have thought to shake Lucas off his tail but no one had been following him for the past hour and he had marked Sicheng patrolling across town. Everyone in the Lee House should be long asleep by now.

The window he had unlocked that afternoon quietly slides open and just like that Donghyuck is granted access. He pauses to listen but the house is quiet. Vulnerable.

Donghyuck wastes no time and silently heads up the stairs to Jisung and Chenle’s room, the SILENCE on his left flank allowing him to move without a sound. There was no point in waiting around. He would dive into Chenle’s mind, find what he was looking for and get out. Even on the off chance some of the Pack members had some kind of resistance, there was no way Chenle did, as young as he was.

Donghyuck glides down the hallway but freezes at the sound of a small rustle. He strains his ears and listens. A few minutes later he hears it again, coming from the opposite side of the hallway. Doyoung’s room.

Years of survival training have taught Donghyuck that it’s ignorance that killed you first. So it’s without a second thought that he goes to investigate. If Doyoung was awake he needed to know.

Luckily the older werewolf’s door is slightly ajar, just enough that Donghyuck can peek inside. The bedside lamp is light on, softly illuminating Doyoung who is sitting propped up against the headboard reading a book. Jeno sleeps curled up in his lap. There’s another small rustle as Doyoung turns a page in his book.

_Well fuck_ , Donghyuck thinks. Not only was Doyoung awake, but Jeno was with him. He had been planning to dive into Jeno’s mind for a second perspective but now that option was off the table. Jaemin or Renjun would have to do.

Donghyuck heads back to Chenle and Jisung’s room and when he slowly opens the door he’s both surprised and not to find it empty. He grinds his teeth and heads to Jeno, Jaemin and Renjun’s room.

Donghyuck stares down at the sleeping forms of Jaemin and Jisung, Jaemin with one arm wrapped around Jisung’s waist, his nose buried in the younger’s hair. They look so painfully young.

For a moment, Donghyuck hesitates.

But then he reaches out with his pointer finger and gently writes the word MEMORY on the back of Jaemin’s head. He blinks and he is Jaemin.

_Jeno wasn’t at school today. That was two days now. Where was Jeno? Worry infects his blood and he needs to see his friend. ‘Hyung we need to check on him. Can we go to his house please?’_

_‘Somethings wrong,’ Ten-hyung says, opening the front door._

_Horror. Fear. Panic. Jeno’s bloodied unmoving form on the floor. ‘No!’ He screams. He can’t breathe._

_‘Doyoung stop!’ Someone yells. But all he can see is his friend. His Jeno. Someone hurt his Jeno. Someone hurt his Jeno. Who hurt his Jeno?_

_A body is thrown against the wall. Doyoung-hyung. Doyoung was thrown away from—_

_He squeezes the throat between his hands. ‘I’ll kill you!’ He screams at Jeno’s father. He’ll kill him._

_He’s flung backwards, Ten yelling at him._

_He can’t see, tears blurring his vision. Doyoung is picking his Jeno up. Jeno shouldn’t look like that. Jeno won’t survive looking like that. Humans broke so easily._

_He’s small. So thin. Too thin. Too thin. Pretty._

_‘He smells good,’ Jeno whispers._

_Distrustful, pretty eyes stare at them. Too thin. Hollow cheeks._

_‘This is Renjun,’ Taeyong says. T—_

Donghyuck jerks out of Jaemin’s mind, stomach churning. That’s not what he wanted to see. That was too far back, much too far back. Everyone had looked so young. God, Jeno couldn’t have been older than twelve. Someone ( _his father_ , a voice, no, Jaemin’s voice whispers in his mind) had beaten up a twelve year old Jeno.

A young, emaciated Renjun flashes in his mind’s eye.

Donghyuck takes a step back, trying to keep the bile from rising in his throat. How had that happened? He was only looking for information on Jisung and the night of the fire and yet he had been thrown back to memories wh—

The bedroom door opens and Donghyuck jerks around, heart racing.

Doyoung guides a sleepy, shuffling Jeno in with a gentle hand on his back. “I wanna sleep with you,” Jeno mumbles.

“You know I have patrol. Go to bed, pup.”

Donghyuck presses himself against the wall as Jeno goes over and climbs into the bed, molding himself against Jaemin’s back. Horror shoots through him as he realizes Jaemin’s hair is sweat soaked and he’s breathing a little too quickly. That’s not normal. Memory Diving shouldn’t have done that.

Thankfully, Jeno doesn’t seem to notice as he falls asleep the moment his head touches the pillow.

Doyoung stands at the doorway for a moment, a small smile on his face, and Donghyuck stands tense, hoping he doesn’t notice Jaemin’s unusual state. But Doyoung just turns around and leaves, shutting the door behind him as gently as he can.

Donghyuck lets out a breath he didn’t even know he was holding. How had he not sensed Doyoung and Jeno coming? His eyes slide back to Jaemin. His breathing was slowly returning to normal but that should have never have happened in the first place. Why had he reacted so weird? Why couldn't he control what he was seeing? Had it just been a fluke? Would the other Pack members react the same?

Donghyuck leaves the room, trying to ignore what he had seen in Jaemin’s mind for now. His priority right now was finding out if the Pack had turned Jisung unwillingly and if they were a security threat or not. Their pasts were none of his business.

Heart still beating much too fast, Donghyuck opens the door to the next bedroom, searching for Renjun. It was obvious no one was sleeping where they were supposed to be and since he only knew which rooms were the younger werewolves, he was practically searching blindly. He might as well check every bedroom at this point.

He opens a door and, going from the sleeping form of Yuta, he would guess that this was his bedroom. Though at this point it was anyone’s guess and the small lump under the covers next to him indicated the older wasn’t alone.

Donghyuck approaches the small lump, hoping it’s who he thinks it is, when Yuta stirs and looks over at him.

“All good?” he asks groggily.

For a split second, he thinks Yuta is talking to him. An impossibility considering the ancient words inked on his body. But Yuta isn’t quite looking at him and his brain belatedly catches up with his senses. There’s someone behind him.

Donghyuck turns around to see Sicheng standing in the doorway, back in from patrol. The werewolf has a small frown on his face.

“All good,” Sicheng says slowly. He sniffs the air and looks around.

“Cuddle with me?” Yuta asks, holding his arms open in invitation.

“No.”

Yuta hums, unphased by the blunt rejection and rolls over, pulling the lump under the sheets closer to him.

“Did you leave the door open?” Sicheng asks.

Yuta gives a vague grunt and Donghyuck curses his luck in his head. He needed to get hell out of this room.

Sicheng goes over and shakes his shoulder. “Hey. Do you smell anything weird?”

Yuta lifts his head up and sniffs. “All I smell is you~”

“Ha ha. I’m being serious. You have a better sense of smell than me. Do you smell anything different?”

Yuta inhales deeply. “It smells like it always does.”

The lump shifts and a disgruntled Renjun pops out from the covers. “Some of us are trying to sleep,” he says, voice heavy with sleep.

Donghyuck slips out of the room before Sicheng has the chance to close it. It seemed like he had picked the worst possible night. Too many people were awake, there were too many chances for things to go even more wrong than they already have. He should just call it a failure and go home.

But he hasn’t learned anything yet and he’s loath to fail at anything.

Donghyuck goes up a floor and starts opening each door he comes across. The first door is just a closet, the second an office of some kind, the third a bathroom and the fourth— The smell registers before anything else. He knows this smell. Mark Lee.

Splayed out on his stomach on top of the comforter, Mark looks like he just collapsed on the bed before falling asleep. A smile creeps up on Donghyuck’s face at the sight. He looks like a starfish. A werestarfish. A werestar. Wolfstar.

Mark inhales and turns his head. “...aechan,” he mumbles hoarsely.

Donghyuck startles at his name and quickly exits the room. In the hallway he takes a moment to compose himself becuase _what the fuck_. There was no way Mark could have sensed him. What the hell was up with this Pack? They were determined to ruin what should have been a simple in-and-out operation.

Frustration stirs in his chest as he opens another door and of-freaking-course it’s Taeyong’s room.

Donghyuck’s not idiotic enough to go digging around an Alpha’s mind, especially with the luck he’s been having tonight, but there’s another form sleeping in the bed and as the oldest Pack member, surely Taeil would provide him with some sort of insight. The stupidity of what he’s about to do is not lost on him; if any members were to provide resistance to his intrusions it would be the eldest. And if his disastrous run through Jaemin’s mind was any indication, this would probably be similar if not worse.

Donghyuck approaches the bed and gently writes the word on Taeil’s forehead.

_A young Kun and Sicheng glare at him with gold eyes. Omegan eyes._

_Dead werewolves litter the ground. He lights them on fire, the most he can do._

_A teenaged Lucas smiles down at him, gangly arms wavin—_

Donghyuck is roughly pushed out of Taeil’s mind and he stumbles back a step from the force of it. Nausea rolls through his stomach from the abrupt and sporadic jumping from memory to memory. The smell of burnt flesh lingers in his nose and he shakes his head to try and clear it.

That wasn’t what he wanted to see at all either. Why couldn’t he control anything? Why were they so difficult to navigate?

Donghyuck takes a moment for his senses to recover, to orient themselves. His eyes slide to the other sleeping form on the bed. No. There’s no way he could risk that.

Before the word can fade, he pushes back into Taeil’s mind. The resistance is somehow stronger than before and there’s no way it is natural; their Emissary must have done something to them. Donghyuck pushes and sees even less defined flashes of memory, each slipping past him before he can really focus on them.

_A young Doyoung—_

_Yuta and a baby faced Jaemin walk behind him—_

  
  


_A human, pale and sickly Jungwoo—_

  
  


_A young Chenle excitedly opens his mouth to tell him—_

  
  
  


_Kun’s head thrown back in laughter—_

  
  
  


_Ten smiles at him over the kitchen table—_

  
  
  
  


_Taeyong hunched over his phone—_

He’s painfully ripped out again, a furious growl piercing his ears. He has to brace himself against the bedside table to avoid collapsing under another wave of nausea and when he looks up, it’s to see Taeyong sitting upright, eyes glowing red and hostile.

“Alpha?” Taeil mumbles, Taeyong’s furious growling waking him up.

“Get Ten in here now,” Taeyong orders, his eyes scanning the room and even though Donghyuck is certain there’s no way for a werewolf to sense him, he still flattens himself against the wall.

Taeil doesn’t question him and immediately runs out of the room.

“Who are you?” Taeyong demands. “Show yourself now and the consequences will be less severe.”

Donghyuck doesn’t move a muscle. This was one big mistake.

The door opens a minute later as Taeil returns with Ten and _of fucking course_ the Emissary was here tonight. The Emissary who Donghyuck had literally only met twice so far because he spent every other night somewhere else. God, he would have known this if he had just taken the time to send a quick text to Johnny.

“Check for an Emissary,” Taeyong commands.

Ten’s eyes widen but he nods and kneels down. He closes his eyes and a moment later opens then. “There’s no Emissary here. And there’s no trace of one having been here.”

“Check for a demon.” Taeyong’s eyes glide over him.

“You think a demon is here?”

“Someone was messing around in Taeil’s head.”

Taeil frowns but slowly nods. “Now that you mention it… I wasn’t really dreaming... It’s fuzzy, but it was like I was remembering…” he trails off and then abruptly heads to the door. “I’ll check with the others,” he says and then leaves.

“I’ll get my supplies,” Ten says and then he too leaves.

Taeyong moves to stand in front of the door, blocking the one exit. “What do you want, demon? The longer you hide the more painful this will become. You haven’t hurt anyone yet so there’s no reason for us to hurt you. Speak, and we can move past this.”

Donghyuck’s silence only serves to anger Taeyong as he lets out another low growl. Donghyuck can’t look away from the fury in Taeyong’s red eyes. He’s always felt at ease around the Alpha but now...

Ten comes back in carrying a handful of miscellaneous items which he carefully arranges around the room. With a vial of red liquid he starts to write advanced sigils for revelations on the walls and Donghyuck is more than impressed. The sigils were not just for demons but for faeries, goblins, vampires, and even poltergeists. If he had been anything other than an Enforcer he would certainly be caught. But the mark on his lower back ensures his safety.

Taeil comes back in and immediately launches into his report. “Yuta is taking everyone to the safe room. Jaemin states he dreamed of the day Jeno was turned and the day he met Renjun. And Mark states he dreamed of Haechan but no one else had any dreams. Sicheng said he thought something was off earlier when he came back from patrol but isn’t sure what. Kun is going to retrieve Doyoung.”

Taeyong nods. “You, Jaemin, and Mark. Why you three? Why those memories?”

“Okay, no one move,” Ten says and then the red ink soaks into the walls and disappears. Silence reigns as they wait in anticipation. Donghyuck holds his breath.

Ten frowns. “There’s no one here but us.”

Taeyong’s jaw clenches. “They must have left already. _Damn it_.”

“And that thing catches everything?” Taeil asks.

Ten gives him an offended look. “I’ll have you know this sigil has been tested on practically every supernatural creature in existence apart from…” he trails off.

“Apart from what?” Taeyong demands.

“Apart from Enforcers,” he says grimly. “That doesn’t mean one is here,” he adds quickly. “It could have just as easily been a dream demon who's already left.”

Taeyong’s red eyes scan the room one more time. “We’ll spend the night in the safe room,” he says, tone final. They leave the room and it takes Donghyuck much longer than he is willing to admit to peel himself away from the wall.

He shakes his head and tries to get Taeyong’s angry red eyes out of his head. He doesn’t want to see that ever again. Donghyuck all but runs out of the now empty house, left to wonder how the hell this mission could go wrong in so many ways.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi all, I just want to thank everyone for all the feedback so far. I haven't really responded to comments because I'm shy shy shy! But I have been reading them!


	6. Johnny: Revealed Part I

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is dedicated to learning what Johnny's been up to this entire time. In hindsight, I wish I had woven his parts in from the beginning but oh well!  
> Also, I don't think I ever specified everyone's ages? The only ages that have plot relevance are the dreamies but if you're curious how I picture it:  
> 16- Chenle, Jisung  
> 17- Jeno, Jaemin  
> 18- Renjun  
> 22- Donghyuck  
> 23- Mark, Lucas  
> 24- Jungwoo  
> 25- Jaehyun, Ten, Doyoung, Sicheng, Kun  
> 26- Johnny, Taeyong, Yuta  
> 27- Taeil

Three weeks and one day ago

Johnny looks at the two bottles of carbonated water in his hands; one lime flavored and one lemon flavored. “Fuck,” he whispers under his breath. If he bought the wrong one Donghyuck might literally stab him. He _knows_ Donghyuck told him multiple times which flavor he likes but as he stares down at the labels he can’t remember which one. He can’t even pretend like he just forgot to buy them because Donghyuck had scribbled ‘DRINKS’ on the back of his hand in sharpie before he had left for his first day of school that morning. Johnny throws a quick prayer up and throws the lemon drink in his basket. Now all he needed to get was some wine.

And this was his area of expertise. Donghyuck might be a certifiable werewolf whisperer, but Johnny was a pro in handling Emissaries and Hunters. The Jungs wouldn’t care what kind of wine he brought to dinner, they would only care if he had some sort of familial sentimentality attached to it. Perhaps he could go with the classic ‘this was my mother’s favorite before she passed away a few years ago.’ That was always a hit with Hunters.

Johnny walks past the freezer aisle and almost jerks to a stop, doing a double take. Half way down the aisle, a short man stands on his tip toes, straining to reach something from the top shelf in the freezer.

Johnny’s been studying that face for the past week. Ten, 25, Emissary of the Lee Pack.

‘That’s one hell of a coincidence,’ Johnny thinks as he casually turns and heads down the aisle, wine forgotten. He tries to calculate the chances of running into a Jung his first day here and the Lee’s Emissary on his second day here. It _was_ a small town, he reasons.

The Emissary, Ten, bites his lower lip and looks frustrated as his fingers brush the bottom of the box, only pushing it further back into the freezer. He looks like he’s two seconds away from just climbing into the freezer.

Johnny had been planning on waiting a few days before making contact with the Emissary, but he had never been one to pass up an opportunity. “Need some help?” he asks.

The man whips around and Johnny almost takes a step back in shock at the man's aggressive stance and piercing glare. “Do I _look_ like I need help, you— Oh!” The man’s eyes widen and his face quickly melts into a smile, straight white teeth flashing.

Johnny blinks at the rapid change and now that he’s this close to the other he has the odd thought that the man looks like he just walked out of a skin care ad.

“Hello there, I’m Ten,” the Emissary says, holding his hand out expectantly.

“Johnny,” he says and shakes the man’s hand. They feel much too soft for an Emissary.

“You must be new around here? I _definitely_ would have remembered you,” Ten says with a wink.

Johnny blinks and tries to gather his thoughts. This _was_ the Lee Pack Emissary, right? He looks down at their still clasped hands and, sure enough, a large red and gold ring adorns his right middle finger; the Lee’s crest engraved in the center jewel.

“It’s a small town and I pretty much know anyone who's anyone. Are you passing through or…?”

Johnny takes his hand back and stares at the man. The freezer door had closed when Ten had turned around but now he leans against it, his hip cocked and head tilted to the side, that smile still on his face. An almost coquettish smile.

Johnny has the abrupt realization that he’s being flirted with. By an Emissary. Emissaries, who were infamous for being sticks in the mud and who constantly spoke in vague and ambiguous sentences. He looks the man up and down, looking for something to prove he’s reading the vibes wrong. But the man just smiles wider. It seemed their file had left quite a few things out.

“Just moved here yesterday with my little brother,” he says. “I’m the new deputy.”

Ten raises a finely shaped eyebrow and blatantly looks Johnny up and down. A mimic of the way Johnny had just done a few moments ago, a way that could be considered flirtatious he now realizes. “A man in uniform then? I can work with that.”

Johnny can’t stop the smile from tugging at his lips. This was definitely no ordinary Emissary. He quickly adjusts his plans. Perhaps instead of playing keep-away with the Emissary and letting Donghyuck get all the information on the Lee Pack, he could get some information about the Pack from Ten.

“I’m guessing you live around here?” he asks, making the executive decision to go into what Donghyuck liked to call “cheesy man mode” but he called flirting. He had never used it on a job before but it certainly wouldn’t be a chore to seduce this Emissary. He really was rather pretty.

“You’re looking at Greenville’s one and only pharmacist,” Ten says, spreading his arms out and for a moment Johnny thinks he’s going to spin around.

“Pretty _and_ smart,” Johnny says and Ten’s smile turns vicious.

“And I don’t even need to carry a gun around to compensate for anything,” he says, looking down to the gun strapped around Johnny’s waist, partly hidden by his jacket.

Johnny laughs at that and takes a step closer. “So I’m guessing you don’t need any help reaching that pizza then?”

Ten pouts and it should look ridiculous on a man his age but it just looks cute. “How about you get that pizza for me and I’ll let you take me out to lunch.”

Johnny chuckles. “Oh is that how this works?”

Ten looks him up and down again and _wow_ he was really forward. Johnny kind of liked it. “For you it is. Now hurry up, I don’t have all day.”

Johnny smiles at the Emissary’s impatience and opens the freezer. Making sure to keep eye contact, he easily reaches up and easily grabs the frozen pizza. Ten doesn’t look amused by this and it just makes Johnny smile wider. “Here you go. It was a _pizza_ cake to reach.”

Ten’s lips purse as he obviously tries to hide his smile. He eventually just rolls his eyes and spins on his heels. “Well come on then. I’m starving and you owe me lunch.”

Johnny follows after the Emissary who didn’t act like an Emissary, his cheeks hurting from smiling so much. And Donghyuck said his puns were bad.

* * *

Johnny stares up at the ceiling and tries to remember exactly how he had ended up here. Where he went wrong to end up in this situation. He and Ten had been talking over lunch, Ten making witty and increasingly inappropriate comments. With a few simple questions, Johnny had been able to bring up Lee Taeyong.

_“So it’s not like I can call Taeil-hyung,” Ten says, waving his fork around._

_“Of course,” Johnny nods. “Because he explicitly told you not to leave Jeno and Jaemin by themselves.”_

_“Exactly!” Ten says, eyes wide. “So I had to go to this lady’s place and try to explain that we had accidentally charged like $6,000 to her card.”_

_“And how did she take it?”_

_“Oh, babe. Not well at all. She was screaming her head off at me so I had to drag Jaemin and Jeno out of the car and make them fake cry.”_

_Johnny muffles a laugh, “You made them cry?”_

_“Well I didn’t_ make _them per se. I just told them if we couldn’t appease the lady then I would tell Taeyong and he would make them sleep in different rooms. And it’s not like they knew I would rather eat mountain ash than tell Taeyong I lost them,” Ten says, oblivious to his odd reference, though the empty wine glass next to his plate probably played a part._

_He snaps his fingers. “Instant waterworks. And it’s impossible to resist Jaemin when he’s sad so the lady accepted our apology on the grounds we returned everything we bought.”_

_“And did you?”_

_Ten rolls his eyes. “There was no way she would have known if we returned it or not since there were no refunds, but Jeno had to snitch to Doyoung who is such a party pooper and was hovering over my shoulder to make sure I returned everything.”_

_“Did Taeyong ever find out?” Johnny asks._

_“No way,” Ten shakes his head adamantly. “He would have literally bitten my head off if he’d found out. We’d only had Jeno for maybe a year by then so he was still super protective of him. Not that he isn’t always super protective. And it’s only been worse this past month. Ugh, I’ve never seen him this,” he waves a hand around, “out of sorts.” Ten leans forward and Johnny mimics him. “For years he’s had the nerve to judge me for flirting with people- and it’s just been flirting mind you- and then he goes off playing with his Romeo for I don’t even know how long.”_

Ten had been more than willing to talk about his Alpha. More than willing to spill all the recent tension that had been running between them, carefully hidden from the rest of the Pack. But then Johnny’s memory gets a little fuzzy on the specifics from there.

Ten had made a few jokes and Johnny had ordered a few shots in order to make another pun. Ten had found it hilarious and then they were sharing a cab back to Ten’s place and then...

Johnny rubs a hand across his face. There’s no way he can ignore the weight on his chest anymore. He looks down to see the top of Ten’s head resting on his chest, his gentle snoring filling the room.

...And then he had been making out with Ten against the Emissary’s door. And then he had been making out with him on this bed.

Johnny vigorously rubs his hands across his face again. He has a distinct memory of Ten’s lean stomach clenching and flexing as he stripped for him. He has a distinct memory of his face in the throes of pleasure. He shifts a leg and yup, both of them are definitely naked.

He isn’t like Donghyuck. He doesn't have arbitrary rules about who he’s allowed to get involved with. Hyuck had his strict No Werewolves, Humans, Vampires, Hunters, Banshees, (the list was so exhaustive Johnny honestly couldn’t remember it all and honestly didn’t know if there was a species that _wasn’t_ on the list), but Johnny has always been open to anyone he was attracted to. His nonexistent romantic experience with Emissaries was more due to him not even realizing that Emissaries were an option.

He looks down at Ten sleeping on his chest. His hair is sticking up in every direction and he looks way cuter than anyone his age has a right to look.

But this was no normal Emissary. Johnny might specialize in the vague and cryptic riddles Emissaries spoke in, but Ten was so _alive_. So blunt and so genuinely funny and attractive that it was like getting punched from all directions.

Johnny’s eyes travel down to the necklace around Ten’s neck. It looked like a generic chain necklace with a wooden pendant, but Johnny knew it was a potent luck amulet. Only crafted by the most skilled of Emissaries. Ten wasn’t just beautiful and witty- he was incredibly powerful.

Ten nuzzles his head against Johnny's chest and sighs. His eyes crack open and he looks at him through sleep-glazed eyes and it’s so redundant by now but Johnny can’t help but think _pretty_.

A wicked smile breaks on Tens face. “Well officer,” he says, his voice rough with sleep, “if that’s what happens when I break the law…”

Johnny has a horrible recollection of him mumbling nonsense.

_“Fucking illegal to look this good,” he groans into Ten’s neck._

_Ten lets out a breathy laugh and tilts his head back against the door to give Johnny more room to kiss. “That’s what you’re focused on? I confessed to breaking multiple laws and you’re concerned with my looks?”_

_Johnny wraps his arms around Ten’s slim waist and Ten laughs in delight as he picks him up. “As an officer of the law I have no choice but to punish you,” he says and starts walking towards the hallway, peppering kisses across Ten’s face._

_“Oh no~” Ten pouts. “Please officer. I’m innoce—” Ten bursts into laughter and playfully pushes Johnny’s face away. “Oh god, I can’t. I’m sorry, that was so bad. Just the worst.”_

_Johnny gives an exaggerated gasp. “Did you just assault an officer?”_

_“Stooop! You’re so cheesy,” Ten whines but his smile is blinding. He turns and looks over his shoulder to see where Johnny’s heading. “And you’re not even going to the right room! Bedroom is the last door on the left.”_

Johnny is still reeling from how irresponsible he had been when he hears a phone buzz. “Shit,” he says and scrambles out of bed to search for his phone. Donghyuck would be home by now and— he sees two missed calls from an unknown number. “Shit, I have to go.” He texts back and quickly pulls his pants back on.

“So,” Ten says and Johnny’s attention is immediately pulled back to the Emissary. “I don’t normally do this. Not the flirting thing, but like, the whole sex after just meeting you thing. Just so you know.”

For the first time, Ten doesn't look confident. He’s sitting up in the bed now, bed sheets pooled around his waist and hair a mess, but his eyes are distracted, looking everywhere but at Johnny. Confident Ten was enticing, and lustful Ten was irresistible, but awkward Ten was downright enduring.

“Same,” Johnny says.

Ten snorts and his uncertainty disappears as if it had never been there. He confidently looks Johnny in the eye again. “I’m sure. With a face and body like yours?” He raises an eyebrow.

Johnny feels ridiculous as he fights back a blush. Ten had run his hands over every inch of him just a few hours ago, yet the compliment embarasses him. “Flattery will get you everywhere,” he says with a smugness he doesn’t feel.

Ten laughs and reaches over to get something out of the bedside drawer. “Give me your arm,” he demands, and Johnny hesitantly complies. When he starts to write his number on the inside of Johnny’s forearm he has to fight back a flinch; Ten couldn’t possibly understand the intimacy of writing on his skin.

“Text me,” Ten says with a wink.

“You could have just put your number in my phone,” Johnny says, trying to calm his racing heart.

Ten lightly swats his arm. “That’s no fun. This way is much cooler.”

Johnny snorts and finishes getting dressed, very much aware of how the other is blatantly watching him.

Johnny hovers by the door and looks at Ten comfortably lying on the bed, chin propped up in his hand, the sheet barely keeping him modest.

Ten wriggles his fingers at him. “Don’t forget to text me.”

* * *

Jihyun, Jonny quickly discovers, is a pretty straightforward and simple kind of guy. Exactly what one would expect from a Jung. Therefore, it’s pretty obvious to Johnny within the first few minutes of stepping through the front door that he’s being interrogated.

Him and his wife, Mina, are a perfect tag team, no doubt honed by years of practice. Their questions are endless without it seeming like he’s being bombarded, each of them distracting him with what appear to be anecdotes from their own life in order to get their questions in. It’s a give and take that’s incredibly effective as it's hard to get out of without seeming rude.

Unfortunately for them, Johnny is more than familiar with it. Has built his life around navigating these exact situations.

“My sister lives with us but unfortunately she couldn’t make it tonight. She had a last minute meeting for work that she couldn’t get out of,” Jihyun says, voice appropriately apologetic.

“We’re actually really lucky she’s around. She helps out around the house all the time and we’re really close,” Mina adds. “It’s a shame that she’s always being pulled away for work. It’s unfortunate your brother couldn’t make it as well.”

Johnny admires how naturally they inquire about Donghyuck’s whereabouts. “Yeah, sadly he doesn’t have work as an excuse. He’s a bit of a free spirit and it’s hard to wrangle him into plans. You know how seventeen year olds can be. And heaven forbid he actually help out around the house!”

Mina laughs. “Oh, do I ever understand! It was like pulling teeth trying to get Jaehyun here to wash a single dish when he was that age.”

Jaehyun, their only son, had been perfectly polite throughout introductions. At his mother’s teasing he gives an appropriately bashful smile.

“You’re making him sound bad, dear,” Jihyun chuckles. “Jaehyun was really active with the basketball team so he was rarely home. Does your brother play any sports?”

Johnny pulls out his phone and spends the next fifteen minutes gushing and showing pictures of a young Donghyuck in various school plays- or at least that’s what it looks like. Johnny has dozens of doctored photos.

“Richard’s High has an excellent drama department. I’m sure Haechan will fit right in,” Jaehyun says with a perfectly polite smile. And that was Johnny’s main problem with the youngest Jung. His smile was perfect, his manners were perfect, his hair was perfect. He always had the right answers. Everything about him seemed so fake.

But Johnny’s real problem was that the fakeness was directed at his parents just as much as it was directed at him. His suspicions about the Hunter having some sort of connection with the Lee Alpha were only growing stronger.

The rest of dinner passes with Jihyun and Mina putting up an impenetrable front, but Johnny’s been doing this long enough to spot rotten Hunters from a mile away and he can tell their morals run deep in them. They would never do something so underhanded as try to burn a few pups alive.

“Here, let me get these out of the way,” Mina says, taking their empty plates.

“Let me crack this open, I’ll be right back,” Jihyun says, taking the wine and following his wife to the kitchen, leaving Johnny alone with Jaehyun.

He’s immediately suspicious of Jaehyun’s unassuming smile.

“Sorry about the twenty questions,” Jaehyun says with surprising sincerity. “They mean well.”

“It’s no problem.”

Jaehyun gives him a disbelieving look but doesn't comment. “Don’t feel like you have to suck up to our family just because my grandfather is the Sheriff.”

“If you don’t mind me asking, where is he? I assumed he would be here tonight, but no one has said anything about him.”

Jaehyun looks uncomfortable. “I’m sure you know about what happened to the previous deputy. Grandad hasn’t been taking it too well; they were pretty close. Him and dad butt heads on a good day, but recently it’s been…” Jaehyun trails off.

“Kinda looks like you’ve been caught in between a rock and a hard place. I’m sorry, no one should have to pick sides within their family.”

Jaehyun looks startled, but a small smile creeps on his face, the first genuine emotion Johnny’s seen all night. “Thanks man, that’s… really considerate of you. But don’t worry about it, this family literally lives to fight.” He chuckles, unaware that Johnny understands his joke. “How about I join you and dad on your tour this weekend? He’s just going to show you the old railroad station and the town hall. I’ll make sure you don’t die of boredom when he spends half an hour telling you the entire history of the town. In return you can tell me more about all the different places you’ve lived.”

Johnny smiles; this was too easy. “Deal.”

* * *

His third day of work finds Johnny rummaging through the file closet. What was supposed to be a simple task of finding the previous deputy’s hiring papers had turned into a half hour exercise in patience due to the department's non-existent organizational system.

He eventually locates a file of what looks to be the dead man’s health insurance forms which will have to do for now. He takes one step out of the filing closet and all but runs into someone: Sicheng.

“Ah, sorry about that!” Johnny says, a friendly smile in place.

The werewolf gives him a genial smile. “No worries; I should have been paying attention. But I’ve actually been hoping to meet you, Haechan speaks quite highly of you.”

“Oh, you must be Taeyong!” Johnny exclaims, playing dumb.

“Sicheng, actually. Taeyong is my cousin.”

“Oh, whoops, sorry! Sicheng, Haechan’s told me about you as well. It’s nice to finally put a face to the name.”

Sicheng smiles, looking pleased. “Haechan has mentioned me?”

“Of course,” Johnny half-lies. He hasn’t had the chance to sit and read Donghyuck’s reports yet- they were still crammed in the bottom of his bag- but he’s certain Donghyuck had written about the werewolf. “But Ten’s told me a great deal too. He’s Taeyong’s adopted brother so that would make him your cousin as well?”

“Something like that,” Sicheng smiles and his eyes flicker down to the file in Johnny’s hands.

Donghyuck might be an expert with werewolves, but Johnny was more than capable enough to hold his own against a lone wolf. “Hey,” he says seriously. “I know Haechan’s been spending a lot of time at your house this past week. He hasn’t been getting in the way or anything has he? Please don’t feel obligated to have to watch him all the time. It’s okay to tell him to go home.”

“Haechan is no trouble,” Sicheng says, almost looking offended at the suggestion. “The kids honestly enjoy his company so it really is no burden.”

Johnny carefully tucks away his surprise at the reaction- Donghyuck must have really been working the Lee Pack over hard to have them this attached already. “I can’t tell you how relieved I was when Haechan told me he made friends. This is the fifth time we’ve moved in the past three years and as he gets older it’s harder and harder for him to adjust.”

“He’s a bright outgoing kid. I can’t imagine him struggling to make friends.” The werewolf’s smile goes lopsided. “And it seems you didn’t have any trouble finding friends either.”

Now _that_ was a little too much werewolf interaction for Johnny. “O-oh you mean Ten?” He curses at his stutter and struggles for how to respond. “We’ve only met a handful of times. Not that we’re not friends. He’s lovely. We’re friends. I mean, I think we are.”

Sicheng laughs. “No need to look so nervous. I’m not going to give you the shovel talk. What do you got there by the way?”

Johnny holds up the deputy’s file. “Some of the previous deputy’s reports.” He gives a sheepish smile. “I don’t really know how they structure reports here so I was going to use this as a reference. I didn’t want to bother anyone by asking; trying to make a good impression here you know?”

Sicheng gives an understanding nod. “If you need any help, let me know.”

* * *

Johnny quietly opens the front door, hoping he won’t wake Donghyuck up. He hadn’t meant to stay out so long, but Jaehyun was a pretty cool guy and it was easy to lose track of time when hanging out with him.

It had taken barely anything for Johnny to slip his way into the Hunter’s life. It was clear as day that the guy was lonely and somewhat isolated but for his family. All Jaehyun needed was a friend and it was almost too easy for Johnny to be that for him. And while he knew the Jungs had all but siced Jaehyun on him to fetter him out, he doubted the Jungs were still suspicious of him, much less Jaehyun himself.

Jaehyun had only asked a handful of questions about Donghyuck’s friendship with the younger Lee’s but a shrugged ‘He’s 17, you think he tells me what’s going on in his life?’ was enough to dissuade any further questions.

Johnny pauses as he senses a familiar presence in the living room. “Why are you sleeping on the couch?” he asks into the darkness. He flips the light switch on to see Donghyuck groggily sitting up, hair sticking up in every direction.

“Why are you just now getting in?” Donghyuck rebukes, eyes squinting at the sudden light.

“Jaehyun and I went midnight bowling.”

Donghyuck looks at his phone. “It’s four am.”

“We started at midnight."

“Whatever. Turn off the light, I have to be up in an hour.”

Johnny smiles as Donghyuck lies back down and hides back under the blanket. “But Hyukkie,” he whines in an exaggeratedly high voice. “I haven’t had a chance to talk to you in days. All I’ve had are your poorly written reports.” He skips over to the couch and ungracefully sits on top of the younger man.

“Ugh! Get your fat ass off me.”

“Is that anyway to talk to your big brother? Come on, talk to me. How are the werewolves treating you?”

Donghyuck pokes his head out from under the blanket and glares at him. “Fine, you want to talk, lets talk.”

And crap, Johnny does not like that glint in his eyes.

“What exactly are you doing with the Emissary?” Donghyuck asks. “I’m over at the Lee House every single day and I’ve literally only seen the guy there once. Taeil told me he’s always around the house but for the past week he’s been caught up in, and I quote, ‘a fling’.”

Johnny stands up. “You’re right, you should get some rest.”

“Hyung,” Donghyuck says firmly. “I’ve lost count of how many missions we’ve done together and you’ve _never_ been one to take the seduction approach.”

Johnny shrugs, “There’s a first time for everything. And besides, this isn’t really a typical case.”

Donghyuck frowns at that. “You’re right,” he says.

‘I am?’ he almost says: he hadn’t expected Donghyuck to agree with him. He takes a moment to look the younger man over. They hadn’t seen much of each other the past two weeks and now that he’s really looking he sees that Donghyuck looks tired. More tired than he should. “Hey, you okay?”

Donghyuck gives him a small smile. “Yeah,” he scratches the back of his neck. “This case just sucks.”

Johnny puts a hand on Donghyuck’s shoulder in comfort but he can’t really empathize. Ten was hands down the most interesting and beautiful person he had ever met and it was as easy as breathing being friends with Jung Jaehyun. “You tell me if it gets to be too much okay? We can leave whenever you want.”

Donghyuck lets out a small chuckle. “I’m sure the Council will appreciate that.”

“All you have to do is look out for yourself, you let me take care of the Council.”

“Thanks hyung, but it’s fine. It’s nothing I can’t handle.”

Johnny gives Donghyuck a long look but the other doesn’t back down. “Okay then.” He gently grabs Donghyuck’s hand and traces the word LOVE on his palm.

Donghyuck smiles, turns their hands over, and draws a looping pattern on Johnny’s palm: FOREVER. A sense of peace wash over Johnny as he hears the unspeakable words of their language in his head.

As Johnny gets into his bed a few minutes later he prays to his ancestors that Donghyuck wasn’t getting too attached to anyone. That both of them weren’t getting too attached to anyone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next chapter will be part II of what Johnny's been doing the past three weeks. The only reason it's not all in one chapter is because I haven't finished it yet and I've been trying to keep to a schedule of posting a chapter a week. I kind of wanted to keep different pov's to separate chapters but idk if I like it that way. Might change it up moving forward. Who knows! Certainly not me!  
> Thanks for all the love this has received so far!!


	7. Johnny: Revealed Part II

The town’s only pharmacy is quaint and orderly and, Johnny senses as he steps through the front doors, warded against just about everything. “Hello?” he calls out, easily shrugging off the small tingle of energy that washes over him.

“In the back! I’ll be with you in just a minute!”

Johnny wanders to the back of the store, unsurprised the place is empty. Greenville was such a small idle town that he wouldn’t be surprised if it could be classified as a village.

Johnny leans against the pharmacy counter, eyes drawn to an intricately woven pendant hanging overhead. It hangs idly, innocent with its bright yellow thread, but Johnny can feel the pulses of energy coming off of it. A smile tugs at his lips. It was one of the more clever Truth talismans he’s seen. If Johnny didn’t know any better, he would think Ten was descended from the witches.

For a moment, he lets him himself imagine that Ten actually is. If Ten had magic flowing through him then maybe the Counc— he stops that dangerous train of thought when he hears movement on the other side of the counter, coming from inside what looks to be a back room.

Johnny hops over the counter, goes to the door and carefully cracks it open. He peeks his head through and just manages to get a look at some jars on a shelf that are definitely not for mortal pharmaceuticals before Ten is reaching for him.

Time slows as Johnny assesses the situation. He has to force himself not to tense up and lash out at the Emissary. He doesn't sense any ill-intent coming from the man, just an odd sort of manic energy, so he lets Ten’s hands pull him into the room and push him back against the door.

And then time resumes when hungry lips descend upon him.

Ten’s eager hands drop to Johnny’s belt and tug harshly. “Been thinking of you,” he mumbles against Johnny’s lips.

And then it happens again- Johnny loses himself in Ten. It’s as if nothing else exists outside of the smooth pale skin beneath his hands. As if nothing else mattered other than pulling noises from Ten’s kiss-swollen lips.

It’s exhilarating. Terrifying how Johnny can’t seem to stop himself from pushing Ten back onto the table and situating himself between strong thighs. He presses biting kisses to Ten’s neck and can’t stop words of praise from spilling out.

Ten hooks his legs around Johnny’s waist and encourages him.

Like a fever dream, Johnny loses track of time, forgets himself. In these moments he is not an Enforcer, he is not beholden to the ancient power of his kin, not responsible for ensuring the secrecy of the entire supernatural world, not responsible for his adorable but reckless little brother. He is just Johnny. Just Johnny in a way he hasn’t been since before his bloodline awakened and the power in him bound him to a lifetime of duty.

“Johnny,” Ten gasps out. He grabs the back of Johnny’s head and pulls him down. Blunt teeth dig into his shoulder as they come together.

Johnny isn’t sure how long they lie panting against one another, their joining had been quick and rough and his body throbs in satisfaction. He’s too caught up in a hazy afterglow to do anything but soak in Ten’s presence.

Ten taps Johnny’s back. “My break ended 3 minutes ago.”

Johnny gives an unattractive snort, amusement lazily curling through him. “You really know how to make a guy feel special.”

“Please,” Ten says with a huff, pulling his pants back on and straightening his shirt. “I know for a fact your self confidence is disgustingly high. You don’t need my encouragement.” He combs his fingers through his hair and with a dramatic eyebrow raise he heads back out into the empty store.

Johnny makes himself decent again and follows. “I remember you being very encouraging just now. And last night as well.”

Ten rolls his eyes but doesn't manage to turn away quick enough to hide his smile.

Johnny hops back to the other side of the counter only to turn around and lean against it so he can stare at the Emissary. Ten starts stocking what looks to be on the shelves, moving around so elegantly that it’s almost as if he were dancing. Every movement was accented by so much personality that Johnny was powerless to look away from him. He rests his chin in his hand. Ten really was something else.

Johnny quickly pulls himself away from such unproductive thoughts. He had come here for a reason. While Ten was more than willing to speak about his Alpha, Johnny was having a hard time getting any information about the deceased deputy out of him. It didn’t feel like Ten was hiding information from him, just that he genuinely didn’t know anything about the deceased. As it was so far, Johnny was willing to believe Lee Taeyong had no previous connection with the deputy. And while he could pretty easily conclude why the Alpha had attacked the deputy, he needed some sort of confirmation of who provoked the fight first.

“So I was looking through my predecessors file th—”

Ten turns to him and gives him a startled look, as if he wasn’t expecting Johnny to still be here. “Oh, are you just going to hang out here?” he asks.

Johnny blinks, thrown by the change in script. “I mean, yeah,” he says, scrambling to adjust. “Is that okay?”

“Oh, yeah, sorry. I just thought since we already,” he waves a hand through the air, “you know.”

Johnny does not know.

Ten sighs, eyes hovering somewhere over Johnny’s shoulder. “Since we already banged it out I thought you were just going to head out.”

Johnny frowns, a horrible realization forming in the back of his mind. “This… wasn’t a booty call.”

Now Ten frowns. “It’s not?”

Johnny straightness up and takes a step back, his stomach dropping. It appears he has been _severely_ misreading the signs. He has never been this off about an Emissary before.

“No, it's not. I thought this was…” he trails off and tries to gather his thoughts. He thought Ten was more invested in him than this. They had been sleeping together practically every—

Johnny pauses at the thought. They had sex almost everynight at Ten’s place, and when Johnny stayed overnight, Ten was always gone before Johnny woke up. He had always assumed the other was just going into work, but what if the Emissary was just using him and then intentionally ducking out on him?

Johnny tries to shake the thought away. That couldn’t be right; they still hung out. When Johnny wasn’t with Jaehyun he was with Ten. And they didn’t have sex _every_ single time they met. Had Johnny just been completely oblivious to their actual relationship the entire time? Had he been imagining their compatibility in his head this entire time? Had it all been one sided the _entire time_?

He needed Ten to be emotionally concerned for him. Had he screwed this whole thing up by sleeping with him? Perhaps the friend angle was better. He should just drop the whole seduction plan, call it a failure. “I thought we were friends,” he settles on saying.

Ten gives him a small smile, “We are.”

Johnny frowns. The Emissary sounded sincere enough. “So do you not want me to hang out with you?” he asks.

Ten’s eyes widen. “Oh, you want to hang out as friends! Oh man, sorry! I was worried for a minute there that you wanted to be like, all gooey after sex.” Ten reaches over and grabs one of Johnny’s hands. “I’m so glad we can fuck without it messing up our friendship.”

Johnny forces a smile. “Like friends with benefits,” he says weakly.

Ten smiles and it's beautiful. “Exactly!” He leans across the counter and kisses Johnny. “This makes me so happy, you have no idea.”

When Ten leans in for another kiss Johnny kisses back, mind racing. His chest hurts.

* * *

“Hey, you okay man?” Jaehyun asks.

Johnny looks up from his plate to see the concerned look on Jaehyun’s face. They’ve spent the entire day shopping in the next town over and it had been the perfect distraction for Johnny. He hasn’t thought about a certain Emissary all day. But now that they’re sitting down to eat, unwelcome thoughts have found him again. He had thought he hadn’t let it show, but it apparently wasn't so.

“You’ve been kind of down all day. Is everything okay? Did something happen with Haechan?”

“Nah, Haechan’s fine, nothing short of the apocalypse could bother him. It’s nothing really.”

Jaehyun gives him a disbelieving look. “If you say so.”

There was no way he was bringing up his ‘relationship’ troubles with Jaehyun. Johnny pauses. Actually… “Actually yeah. I do have something I wanna talk about. I need some advice.”

“Sure, I can give advice. Can’t promise it will be good advice though.”

Johnny looks the Hunter over, thinking how to word it. “I’ve been seeing someone. Kinda. I thought we were serious but turns out he doesn’t really think so.”

Jaehyun nods, and Johnny can’t help but feel touched at how seriously he’s taking him. “And you wanna know how to tie him down?”

“Yeah. He’s… pretty amazing. I feel like I can barely keep up with him sometimes.” It comes out more truthful than he wanted.

Jaehyun nods, brows furrowing in thought. “I don’t know if I’m the best person to be giving relationship advice.”

And if that wasn’t the easiest opening ever. “Why? You have a bad break up or something?”

“Or something…” Jaehyun says distractedly. “I don’t really want to talk about it.”

And despite the fact that Johnny’s been looking for this moment for weeks now, he finds himself oddly reluctant to push the matter. “Yeah, sure, no problem, my bad,” he says. Silence settles heavily between them and Jaehyun’s almost-upset face tugs at something in him. It’s the first time the air’s been awkward between them and Johnny doesn't like it at all. He cuts in, “So do I just do the opposite of whatever you did?”

“Dude!” Jaehyun punches his shoulder.

“Ow! I’m kidding!” Johnny laughs, relieved at the smile on Jaehyun's face.

“And I didn’t do anything wrong. We’re not even officially broken up… we’re just… giving each other space.”

Johnny pauses, unprepared and thrilled for Jaehyun’s sudden frankness. “So she did something wrong?” He asks tentatively.

“He. And no. It wasn’t really something either of us did. It was just… just a bad situation. We’re just taking some time apart. We’ll get back together.”

Johnny hums and doesn't push. The sad but determined look on Jaehyun’s face told him everything he needed to know. He pulls out his phone and sends a quick text.

When Jaehyun drops him off at his apartment a few hours later, it’s to see Ten waiting outside the front door. Johnny discreetly looks over to watch the Hunters reaction.

Jaehyun parks the car and looks at Johnny with wide eyes. “You know the Le— Ten?” Jaehyun asks.

Johnny ducks his head. So Jaehyun really hadn’t known he was spending time with Ten. He has no doubt both his father and grandfather had ordered him to follow him and Johnny isn’t sure how to feel about the fact that Jaehyun clearly hadn’t. “Uh, you know that guy I was talking about before?”

Jaehyun's eyes go wider. “Shit, Johnny! Why didn’t you tell me you were dating him?!”

“We’re not really dating. I mean I want to but he seems more interested in… you know. And I was telling you about him before!”

Jaehyun runs a hand through his hair. “Of all the people…”

“What’s wrong with Ten?” Johnny asks. It’s a struggle not to laugh to get the next sentence out. “Don’t tell me he’s the guy you’re taking a break from!”

“NO!” Jaehyun shouts. “Jeez no! Ugh, just get out. I’ll see you Thursday.”

Johnny jogs to the front door, aware of Jaehyun’s eyes watching him, and gives Ten a peck on the cheek.

“I didn’t know you were friends with Jung Jaehyun,” Ten says. He wraps an arm around Johnny’s waist and pulls him close, eyes staring intently behind Johnny.

“Funny, he said the same thing about you.”

* * *

Johnny drops Ten’s shaking legs and wipes his mouth with the back of his hand. “So why are you so insistent about being only friends with benefits?”

Ten gives him a disbelieving look, face flushed and still panting. He runs a hand through his hair and gives a breathless laugh. “Seriously? Right now? I’ve already told you, I’m not looking to be tied down.”

 _Ironic since you’ve tied yourself to the Lee Pack_ , Johnny bites the retort back. “I wouldn’t try to tie you down.”

Ten gives a real laugh this time. “We have a good thing going on right now, Johnny. Let's not ruin it.”

Johnny runs a hand up the Emissary’s thigh. He doesn’t understand why Ten’s not more invested in him. Johnny felt hopelessly enraptured by Ten and it was… frustrating that it wasn’t reciprocated. “It wouldn’t be ruined. If anything, it would be improved.”

“I don’t want that kind of relationship,” Ten says, starting to look a little irritated.

“Maybe I do,” Johnny blurts out and doesn’t like how true that statement is.

Ten abruptly sits up, the luck amulet he never took off swinging wildly. “Then look for it somewhere else,” he snaps.

“Maybe I will,” Johnny snaps back, hating the ugly knot forming in his stomach.

Ten rolls his eyes and climbs on top of him, settling his weight on Johnny’s thighs. “You won’t find anyone better than me in this entire state,” he says flippantly.

Frustration boils over as Johnny grabs Ten’s hips and flips them over. He boxes the Emissary in with his arms and leans down so their noses are almost touching. “And you won’t find anyone better than me in this whole country.”

“Don’t be so full of—ah!” he cuts off with a cry when Johnny rolls his hips down and presses their groins together.

“If you could, you wouldn’t be here with _me_ right now.” Johnny grits out, kissing harshly down his neck only to give a soft bite to his collarbone. “So you should just stay with me.”

“You’re the one trying to change things.” Ten’s voice is breathy as he wraps his legs around Johnny’s waist and pulls him closer.

“Trying to make it better,” Johnny whispers into his skin and then Ten is pushing up and the rest is lost to pleasure.

When the burning inferno between them has settled to a smoulder Ten doesn't hesitate to get out of the bed and dress, ready to leave. Johnny just lies on his side, watching. The pang in his chest is almost a constant feeling now. “You could stay,” he can’t help but say.

Ten hesitates at the door. He looks back and for a moment Johnny thinks he sees something flash in his eyes. For half a moment, Johnny hopes.

“It’s getting late,” Ten says and leaves.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for all the support guys! Next chapter will go back to Donghyuck’s pov


End file.
